HOTLINE FOR CHILD ABUSE CASES. Lawyer Raul Nadela, Jr., chief of staff of the City Mayor’s Office heads the launching of the 24/7 Kean Gabriel Hotline, which will receive complaints against child abuse on Friday, Oct.28. Nadela said the hotline number 0908-818-4444 will also entertain other complaints and emergencies. The hotline was named after three-year-old Kean Gabriel Agustin, who died due to alleged maltreatment by his stepfather on August 24. (Earl O. Condeza)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A Davao City-based child rights advocate lauded the initiative of the city government for creating a hotline to cater child abuse reports.
Florie May Tacang, executive director Kaugmaon Center for Children’s Concerns Inc., has expressed hope that “children who are abused will be rescued immediately” through the newly-created hotline.
Dubbed as “Kean Gabriel,” the hotline was named after the child victim Kean Gabriel, a 3-year old boy who died last August 24 after being maltreated by his stepfather. It was launched last Oct. 28, Friday.
For Tacang, the program is a welcome a step to combat child abuse. “This is a good program, which could address child abuse.”
Prevention and education
Tacang, however, said the challenge is how to install a mechanism to prevent abuses against children.
“[It is] the effort that there is still need of prevention, and for the community to understand that protection of the children is a communal task,” she said.
Tacang said, most neighbors, when they saw a parent maltreating their children, “they will just be silent of it and think of it as disciplinary action.”
Undersecretary Mae Fe Templa of the Department of Social Welfare and Development said “action should be accompanied by a child-oriented education that informs adult community on the way we deal with children.”
“When parents treat their children (including adopted or step children) as properties, it seems ‘normal’ for them to take any measure of discipline- verbal or physical abuse,” Templa said.
“Children were perceived as appendages or extensions of adults receive cruelty and discrimination.”
“Hotline should be able to track all these forms and educate the people,” Templa said, noting that violence against children take many forms.
Lorna Mandin, chief of the Integrated Gender Development Division (IGDD) of the city said they are pushing the City Council to strengthen the protection of children.
Mandin said the “Kean Gabriel” hotline is “one component that could strengthen” the city government’s program against the issue of child abuse.
Abuses and prosecution
City Social Services and Development Office Head Malou Bermudo said that it is not only physical abuse that could be considered child abuse.
Among others are psychological abuse, attention deprivation, and deprivation of basic needs, Bermudo said.
She said to verify the abuse, “you yourself, as an adult, could see that there are bruises or wounds [on the child],” something that is “beyond discipline.”
City Mayor’s Office Chief of Staff Attorney Raul Nadela, Jr. said that perpetrators of the child abuse would be dealt with the government prosecutors, adding that child abuse victim/s will be on the assisted by CSSDO.
24-hour hotline
The Kean Gabriel hotline is an inter-agency 24/7 emergency hotline and participated by the CSSDO, City Information’s Office, Davao City Police Office, Central 911 and the IGDD.
Nadela said the hotline No. 0908-818-4444 will be a text and call hotline, to entertain concerns not only on child abuse but also on other issues including violence against women.
“This will still evolve. We will not just focus with children’s concerns later on,” Nadela said. (With a report from Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano/davaotoday.com)
