Nov. 5, 2015 Zamboanga City – With the significant increase in cases relating to children and youth, the Department of Social Welfare and Development IX through its Regional Juvenile Justice Council (RJJWC) creates a Joint Monitoring Team (JMT) for juvenile delinquents.
During its 5th bi-monthly meeting yesterday presided by DSWD IX Assistant Regional Director for Operations Consejo Usman, the council reviewed and made some necessary corrections and revisions in the resolution creating the JMT of the RJJWC in region IX.
The said resolution provides the roles and functions of the JMT which are as follows; 1) Conduct monitoring visits to Regional Rehabilitation center for Youth (RRCY) and Bahay Pag-asa in selected priority areas; 2) Provide technical assistance to such centers and institutions with regard to case management and other relevant issues and concerns; 3) Visit provincial and BJMP jails to ensure no minors are in detention jails; and 4) monitor the LGUs adoption and implementation of its CLJIPs and utilization of its 1% IRA for juvenile justice programs.
The council has also come up with the final list of the JMT members which include DSWD, Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Department of Justice (DOJ), Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), Philippine National Police (PNP), Silsilah Foundation, Inc., Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), Social Action Center (SAC) and League of Municipalities.
“We need a monitoring team to ensure full implementation of the programs and services for our CICL (Children in Conflict with the Law) and CAR (Children at Risk) clients and that the interventions that are given to them are really helping them recuperate for eventual integration into the mainstream society.” Usman said in a statement.
The formal expression of will is expected to be approved by the identified team members within this month together with the second resolution that intends to allocate funds for the establishment of Bahay Pag-Asa in the provinces of Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur.
In the same meeting, a representative from the Philippine National Police also presented the status of CICL cases in the region wherein Zamboanga City posted 91 children and youth related cases from July to September, 2015, the highest in the region. The report also revealed that Norte had 33 cases, Sur had 23 and Sibugay had 14 cases in the 3rd quarter. According to the PNP, these cases are ranging from rape, illegal drugs to simple theft.
RJJWC is an inter-agency structure being chaired by the DSWD mandated to oversee and ensure implementation of the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act, and is expected to provide support in all areas of monitoring, policy and program development, advocacy and social mobilization.###