Councilor Romualdez holds summit on VAWC
TACLOBAN CITY — Looking for a breakthrough measure to plug the apparent rise on “women and child trafficking” cases in the city, Sangguniang Panlungsod Floor Leader Cristina G. Romualdez called on various sectors to a conference recently as she solicited their support on this objective.
A consultative meeting of a kind with the aim of formulating plan of actions to combat Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC), the said high level gathering was attended by top officials from various government agencies and private sectors.
Invited to attend the forum were representatives from the Commission on Human Rights, the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, lawyer’s group, the academe and the religious sects, entertainment business community and some barangay executives.
Councilor Romualdez, SP Committee Chairman on Women and Family, disclosed in an interview that recent reports reaching her office claimed that minors were being employed as entertainers in “videoke” houses somewhere in a coastal village in the city, as well as in other places, too.
“This, and the result of the operation conducted in one night spot here where four minors were rescued, prompted me and my office to immediately act on the matter”, the lady councilor said.
According to Councilor Romualdez, collectively drafted by the participants during the said forum were options that would more or less offer solution to perennial problems in the city such as those involving Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL), Child Trafficking, Abuse of Women and Children and the proliferation of solvent sniffing youths.
As an example of the concerns they wanted addressed, Romualdez said is the putting up of a holding area wherein exploited minors could be housed temporarily while they undergo psychiatric evaluation and debriefing and pending the filing of appropriate charges against their perpetrators.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the City Social Welfare and Development Office through its Regional Director Letecia Corillo has recently filed a petition seeking the courts to allow its motion to take into custody the minors rescued at an earlier raid conducted at a boarding house, allegedly maintained by the Schooner Night Club.
The petition filed at the sala of RTC Branch 7 Judge Crisologo Bitas under Special Proceedings No. 2009 – 11 – 64 was for the involuntary commitment of the witness-minors to the care and custody of the welfare office, to ensure the witnesses’ safety while the case is in progress, they being the prime witnesses in the instant case. (VALENTINO B. LOPEZ)
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