OLONGAPO WINS 2009 REGIONAL CHILD-FRIENDLY SEARCH

Olongapo City bagged the Presidential Award in the recently concluded Presidential Search for Child Friendly Cities and Municipalities in the highly urbanized city category, regional level.

City Social Welfare and Development Officer Gene Eclarino said the annual search for child-friendly cities/municipalities which started in 1998 aims to institutionalize a child-friendly environment and government towards promoting and protecting a child's survival, development, protection and participation.

“Simula 2001 sunud-sunod na ang panalo ng Lungsod ng Olongapo sa contest na ito, ito’y patunay lamang na epektibo ang ating programa tungo sa maayos na pag-aaruga sa mga kabataan ng lungsod. Ipagpapatuloy natin ang mga programang nasimulan upang higit na magabayan ang mga kabataang ito,” Mayor James Gordon, Jr. said.

The competition specifically aims to give national recognition to cities and municipalities that are deemed child-friendly and to encourage local government units (LGUs) to prioritize and address issues and concerns affecting the full realization of the rights of children, monitor and evaluate the implementation of programs and services.

The validating committee declared Olongapo City as the 2009 Regional winner for Child-Friendly City based, among other reasons, on the different awards received by the city in the different competitions such as Best City Disaster Coordinating Council Award; Regional and National Gawad Kalasag Award for 2006 and 2007; Lupon Tagapamayapa incentive awards for highly-urbanized city cluster; Lupon Tagapamayapa national awardee, Barangay Baretto; Regional Awardee for the Child Friendly City, highly-urbanized category for 2006; and HELPS program of Mayor James "Bong "Gordon that caters for the social, educational, livelihood, housing, health and environmental sanitation of life particularly for the total development of children as well as their service providers.

The validating teams and awards committee for child-friendly cities/municipalities in Region 3 are from the DSWD, Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Justice (DOJ), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) National Economic and Development (Neda), Philippine Information Agency (PIA), National Statistics Office (NSO), Tatag, Preda, National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Luznet.

PAO/nmm