Samar’s child rights advocates to launch protection center for women and children

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
August 31, 2007

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  The Samar Provincial Sub-Committee on the Welfare of Children will launch the Samar Women and Children Protection Unit (WCPU) on October 10, 2007.

On Thursday, as the committee met with their number one supporter Plan Philippines, the group decided (after a year of hibernation) to finally open the facility to serve Samar’s abused, molested and trafficked women and children.

In an emotional appeal, Natividad Silurio, Project Unit Manager of Plan-West Samar, urged the committee to push the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Plan and the provincial government.

Silurio recalled the case of one Janine Paulin, a 15-year old victim who was found dead and burned in a local grocery shop almost a year ago.

The case created waves as it involved the scion of a rich and influential family who owns the grocery building where the dead girl was discovered. The accused though has recently been acquitted.

While the Center can not do anything to revive the girl, it could have assisted the family on the court proceedings.

The WCPU is a facility near the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO). It has been equipped with facilities for the management of the victims by the so called Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) composed of a physician, PNP and a social worker.

These personnel have been duly trained sponsored by Plan Philippines.

Plan who is hailed as child protector insists that if abused women and children do not report the violence or abuse, the cycle will not be severed and the culprit would go unpunished.

With Samar’s burgeoning population and extreme poverty, the WCPU facility could just be one of the means to cuddle in its bosom the abused and abandoned woman and child.