Security Guards To Be Trained as Child Protectors
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DAVAO CITY — Private security guards, especially those assigned to secure business establishments, will soon carry the additional task as child protectors after undergoing a training on handling children in conflict with law.
The Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children (RSCWC) in Southern Mindanao is bringing security agencies into its fold as child advocates and protectors, in a memorandum of agreement signed on Wednesday.
RSCWC member agencies, Commission on Human Rights, and the Philippine National Police (PNP) entered into an agreement with the Region Eleven Security Agencies (Resa), a group of security agencies that has 66 region-based and 36 branch-based members.
Police chief superintendent Ricardo Quinto, regional director of the PNP; retired Brig. Gen. Godofredo Rabara, RESA president; and Alberto B. Sipaco Jr., CHR regional director, signed the MOA on Wednesday during the RSCWC directors’ meeting at the Apo View Hotel.
The MOA includes the police commitment to include in the Security Guards Basic and Re-Training Curriculum topics on handling of children in conflict with the law (CICL) and other related concerns.
The PNP will also designate an officer or unit that will be primarily responsible in ensuring the implementation of the terms and conditions of the agreement.
It will also select police officers or partner stakeholders who will become “Special CICL Instructors” in the security guards academies accredited to teach identified topics on children, particularly child protection.
RESA has committed to include in its information and education session topics such as proper handling of child offenders.
The CHR will assist in implementing the project in Davao City as the pilot area and will monitor the project in coordination with other stakeholders as well as provide necessary recommendations to enhance and institutionalize the project .
CHR is developing an instructional module on handling CICL cases for the security guard academies and security guard agencies. It will also be providing materials for them.
The MOA is founded on the Philippine commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which declares that “in all actions…the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration.”
The UNCRC also provides that “…every child alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed with the penal law, to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child’s sense of dignity and worth…”
The MOA also cites Republic Act 7610, which declares in part that “It is hereby the policy of the State to provide special protection to children from all forms of abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and discrimination and all other conditions prejudicial to their growth and development.” (PIA/JMDAbangan)
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