DSWD intensifies campaign against human trafficking

BUILDING A BETTER COMMUNITY. Attending OSYs plot their recommended projects to support the well-being of their health, education, community participation and sports during the Community Orienta-tion on Human Trafficking in El Nido, Palawan.

Malate, Manila–Targeting 591,699 households across five island provinces in MiMaRoPa, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) MiMaRoPa will be deploying 1,528 field staff to conduct house-to-house interviews as part of updating of Listahanan database of poor and non-poor families.

“With the successful launching and im-plementation of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction or ListahananCen-tral Database in 2009, the Department is now pre-paring for its second round of nationwide house-hold assessment this first quarter of 2015,” said DSWD Regional Coordinator Ernie H. Jarabejo. Listahanan is the result of the govern-ment’s effort to respond to the need of mapping out who and where the poor are nationwide.This to establish the integrity and relevance of DSWD’s list of poor families in identifying poten-tial beneficiaries for various (cont. p2)

Marinduque, Pioneers GAD Federation in MiMaRoPa

Listahanan nationwide assessment targets half a million households in MiMaRoPa

El Nido, Palawan – The Department of Social Wel-fare and Development (DSWD), in collaboration with the Municipal Social Welfare and Develop-ment Office (MSWDO) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted a Community Orientation on Human Trafficking to 50 out-of-school youths (OSYs), last January 29, 2015 in this municipality. “The OSYs are prone to becoming vic-tims of human trafficking,” said Concepcion Dey-mos, Youth Focal of DSWD Region IV – MiMaRo-Pa. The Orientation-cum-workshop was conducted to equip the audience with knowledge on RA 9208 or The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. The Act refers to trafficking in persons as the re-cruitment, obtaining, hiring, providing, offering, transportation, transfer, maintaining, harboring or receipt of persons with or without the victims con-sent or knowledge.

As of 2014, MiMaRoPa recorded a total of four underaged individuals who were victims of trafficking in person. Most of the victims were that of illegally recruited to work as house-help or bar entertainers.

“Madaling mabiktima ang mga kabataan, lalo na ang mga out-of-school youths, (the youth are easy targets [for traffickers], especially when they are out of school)” said Nesba J. Bacuteng, Assistant Provincial Prosecutor of Palawan. “Kaya maganda na alam na nila, sa ngayon pa lang ano ba ang Human trafficking, paano ito maiiwasan, at kanino maaring magsumbong, (it is better that they learn of human trafficking at this point, how to not

become a victim and know who to ask for help),” Bacuteng added. Following the orientation was a work-shop where participants list down programs or projects that will cater to the well-being of their health, education, community involvement and overall welfare as an individual. “Ang gusto po namin ay makapagpatuloy ng pag-aaral para hindi kami naka-tambay lang, (we wish to continue our studies so we don’t remain idle),” said Christian Al-cantara, 24, one of the OSYs.

A hand-over of the workshop output to Mayor Gacot-Lim as part of the pledge of commit-ment was also conducted. Mayor Lim promised to look into the workshop output and include the recommended programs/projects for the OSYs. “I assure you that we will work on turning your pro-posals into reality,” she said.

Informed leaders

Some 100 barangay captains and local social workers convened for an open forum on traffick-ing. “We’ve also gathered the local leaders to keep them informed of what [trafficking] is about,” said Deymos, who also added that a “more informed” of-ficials will have a better response mechanism to traf-ficked victims.

The attending participants were encour-aged to support the combat against trafficking. El Nido, being one of the top tourist destinations in the Palawan is prone to human trafficking. (cont. p2)

Torrijos, Marinduque- Barangay Gender and De-velopment (BGAD) focal persons across the 25 ba-rangays of this municipality formed a GAD federa-tion for Gender and women’s rights to assure equal opportunities among men and women last January 14, 2015.

More than the physical accomplish-ments, DSWD in its implementation of the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Community Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) project together with the Local Government Unit of Tor-rijos sustain active participation of the communi-ty in many facets of development, one of which is mainstreaming GAD in all barangays. Forming the federation is a new approach in addressing issues concerning women in the municipality.

First in MiMaRoPa, the federation will lead the creation of gender-responsive programs and activities. BGAD will bridge the interests of women, children, elderly, and other vulnerable sectors by sitting with Municipal Development Council meetings. They will also build organiza-tions fostering welfare, safety, and interest of the community and create movements to help victims of abuse and discrimination. The 5% municipality GAD appropriations will correspond to the activi-ties of the federation. (cont. p2)

Busuanga, Palawan –In the continuous effort to provide assistance to the Yolanda-affected areas of MiMaRoPa, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the region distributed an additional 20 bangka-for-livelihood to identified household beneficiaries in Coron and this munic-ipality.

The turnover ceremony was held in ba-rangay Salvacion and attended by Municipal Social Welfare Officer (MSWDO), Divina Dulce along with the intended beneficiaries. The project was an initiative of the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the department in collaboration with the municipalities of Coron and Busuanga. “Loss of livelihood was one of the major damage caused by the onslaught of Yolanda,” said Domingo Agra, Project Development Officer of SLP. He further said that more than rebuilding community assets, it is important to provide a “livelihood that is sus-tainable”. “This banca will support the livelihood needs and help generate household income for the Yolanda victims,” Agra said quoting. DSWD, through the financial assistance

DSWD continues ‘Yolanda’ relief efforts, distributes 20 ‘bangka’ for livelihood

BLESSED. Local Parish Priest, Fr. Amurao of Busuanga held a short Blessing ceremony preceding the distri-bution of the bangka-for-livelihood assets.

of foreign and local donors were able to allocate more than Php 2million to produce livelihood as-sets such as pedicabs- and bangka-for-livelihood. During the celebration of Children’s month in Oc-tober of last year, 13 pedicabs were distributed to beneficiaries from the island of Coron. An addi-tional 27 motorized banca are currently being con-structed, “the bangka-for-livelihood is an on-going project, and additional assets will be distributed to our beneficiaries at the soonest time possible,” said Theresa Tomines, DSWD Project Development Of-ficer of Coron.

“Patuloy ang pakikipag-ugnayan ng am-ing munisipyo sa DSWD para matugunan pa ang mga pangagailangang pangkabuhayan ng mga be-nepisyaryo ng Busuanga at Coron,” said MSWDO Divina Dulce.

DSWD have launched various livelihood projects in the municipalities of Coron and Busu-anga including: Cash-for-work and Food-for-work Projects, and Capital Assistance for Livelihood. ###

DSWD intensifies...

Local leaders are expected to pass an ordinance requiring business establishments to attend an ori-entation on Human Trafficking. “The proposed orientation will help strengthen the mechanism on reporting human trafficking cases, and solidify the existing Local Committee Against Trafficking,” said Deymos.

DSWD provides assistance to victims of human trafficking through its program called Recovery and Re-integration Program for Trafficked Persons (RRPTP). The program was pilot-tested in the region in 2011 and has helped in the rehabilitation process of trafficked persons. The DSWD-led orientation also covered discussions on RA 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009; RA 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006; and RA 7610 or the Special Protection of Chil-dren Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.###

Marinduque, pioneers...

As an initial step in its vision, the mem-bers of the federation work on forming its by-laws, accreditation and institutionalization of their group which they plan to finish by March of the current year.

During the federation’s first meeting, Municipal Planning and Development Coordina-tor and Municipal GAD Focal Person Eugenia D. Cruzado advised that each barangay focal person must assert their roles in the Barangay Council and involve their selves in the planning of activi-ties. “Mahalaga ang iyong papel bilang GAD focal person,” she said to the members of the federation as she reiterated their functions and boosted their confidence to appear in the barangay activities.

“Bilang pangulo ng BGAD Federation ng Bayan ng Torrijos, maigting ang aming layunin na mas higit na bigyang pansin ang kahalagahan ng GAD sa isang pamayanan at maisakatuparan ang layunin ng programang ito tungo sa pantay na pagkilala ng aming mga karapatan upang mas higit na kilalanin ang kakayahan at kilalanin sa lipunang aming ginagalawan (As the president of the BGAD Federation in the Municipality of Torrijos, our goal is to recognize the importance of GAD, fulfill its benefits in our community, assert our rights and make others realize what we can do for our com-munity)” said Erlinda R. Florida, Barangay Pobla-cion Councilor and elected President of the federa-tion.

DSWD looks also into pursuing GAD ac-tivities in other municipalities of the region.

As the Kalahi-CIDSS funding agency, the efforts of the Millennium Challenge Account- Phil-ippines to recognize GAD and women’s roles in the society through the Gender Incentive Grant (GIG) demonstrates that there’s really no going back from the achievement of equity among men and women in the nation. ###

Listahanan nationwide...government social protection programs,Jarabejo added. The Department will be using a two-paged revised Family Assessment Form (FAF) for pen and paper method and mobile application through electronic system. FAF contains verifiable indicators such as household composition, hous-ing structure, education of household members, material assets and access to basic services which is deemed critical to identify the socio-economic status of a family.

“We will assess all households in the community particularly those barangays located in rural areas through saturation method while barangays situated in urban centers are subject for assessment through pockets of poverty depending on the magnitude of poor households,”Jarabejo said. The collected data will go through Proxy Means Test (PMT), a statistical formula that esti-mates the household income based on the non-in-come variables to identify if the family is poor or not.###

EDITORIAL BOARD: D wight M ac abuhay | Jason Eco O liverio | M ar y Anichie I toh | Xel Roxanne AnchetaADVISER: Wilma D. Naviamos