Dumaguete, Pilar most child-friendly city, town

Dumaguete City of Oriental Negros and Pilar town of Camotes Islands, Cebu topped the search for Most Child-Friendly Cities and Municipalities for 2006 in the first to third category and fourth to sixth category, respectively.

Dumaguete garnered a rating of 86.60 percent, beating Dalaguete in Cebu, Inabanga in Bohol and Sibulan in Oriental Negros.

The municipality of Pilar on Camotes Islands prevailed as most child-friendly town, topping Catigbian in Bohol and Dauin in Oriental Negros.

Meanwhile, Cebu City romped away automatically as regional awardee in the highly urbanized city category for being uncontested with a rating of 90.03 percent.

Winners will vie for the national search where P50,000 is at stake. Awarding rites is set in October, which is the Children's Month.

Regional director Teodulo Romo of the Department of Social Welfare and Development said the Regional Awards Committee had submitted the list of the provincial nominees to the members of the Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children for review and recommendation for the national awards.

The Presidential Awards for the Most-Friendly Municipality and City was launched on November 13, 1999 under Executive Order No. 184, but had a moratorium in 2004 and 2005 for the review and study of the evaluation tools and guidelines.

But this year, the Presidential Awards was revived to institutionalize child-friendly governance and environment and give national recognition to cities and municipalities with outstanding performance.

The awards also seek to increase the level of awareness and stakeholders on the rights of children, encourage local government units to prioritize and address issues and concerns affecting the full realization of children's rights and monitor and evaluate the "child-friendliness" of LGUs in the country. - Jasmin R. Uy