Arroyo gives P600T to city for children, other indigents

CEBU, Philippines - President Gloria Arroyo pledged P600,000 to the city after learning that the city government had to cut its aid to organizations that cater to street children and other indigents because of a standing policy of the Commission on Audit.

Arroyo pledged the amount during her visit to Mayor Tomas Osmeña last Friday. The mayor and his wife Margot who heads the Cebu City Commission for the Welfare of Children and the Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko Foundation had relayed the problem to the president.

The COA policy, issued early last year, prohibits local government units from granting financial aid to organizations whose officers are relatives of the local government officials.

Of the pledged amount, P200,000 will go to the street children for their annual summer camp activity while the P400,000 will go to the foundation. The president tasked Press Secretary Cerge Remonde to help facilitate the release of the funds “as early as possible”.

The six-day summer camp at the Kawasan Falls in Badian town next month will be participated in by about 1,000 street children. Margot said there are actually about 6,000 underprivileged children in the city but not enough focus will be given to them if they are looked into altogether at the same time.

“Dili masayon pag-atiman kun atong hutdon ang tanan gyud…dugay na kaayo ni nato nga project nga matag tuig maghimo gyud ta og summer camp alang sa mga street children ug karong tuiga adto kini himoa sa Kawasan Falls,” Margot said.

Those presently under the custody of the Cebu City Community Scouts Center and the Parian Drop-in Center are the priority of the project, she added.

Margot said she had to tell Arroyo that it is impossible for Cebu City to win back the title as most child-friendly city, as long as COA hinders them from funding the commission’s projects for the street children.

The United Nations Children’s Fund was said to be impressed with the city’s initiatives for street children and minor offenders and even wants to make the city’s programs a model for other Asian countries.

UNICEF reportedly found remarkable the coordination between the city government and the network of non-government organizations that help implement programs for underprivileged children.

Margot herself was instrumental in the construction of the Operation Second Chance in barangay Kalusanan, the country’s first facility for minors. She was also the brains behind the mobile schools that have allowed hundreds of community-based street children to attend informal classes.

Osmeña and Margot will fly back to the United States by the end of the month so that Osmeña can undergo surgery to remove the cancerous in his urinary bladder.

Margot said there are still a lot of things to be done for the children and that she hopes to work on them once she and the mayor return home. —Rene U. Borromeo/JMO (THE FREEMAN)