Saturday, May 10, 2008 Dumanjug officials, DSWD work to take custody of kids
DUMANJUG town officials are now coordinating with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 so the agency can immediately take into custody two children suffering from severe malnutrition.
Municipal Councilor Efren Guntrano “Gun-Gun” Gica said they asked the social welfare officer assigned in their town to work on the necessary documents to hasten the process.
Gica hopes to save brothers Glenn, 6, and Gerald, 5, from severe malnutrition by taking them away from their father, Narciso Zamora, who is still grieving over the death of his two sons.
One-year-old Glenmar and two-year-old Benjie died last weekend due to severe malnutrition despite the food and financial assistance the Municipal Government extended to them.
Municipal social welfare worker Visitacion Abelo said, though, that it will not be easy to take the two boys from their father, because he is now suffering from depression.
“He even threatened to commit suicide if he loses one more child,” Abelo said in Cebuano.
Glenn has just gotten out of the hospital after he suffered from diarrhea and other symptoms of severe malnutrition.
In an interview yesterday, Gica said they still plan to take legal actions against the boys’ parents for neglecting their children.
“Makaingon unya ang mga tawo na walay gibuhat ang LGU (The people might say that the LGU did not do anything),” he said.
Gica said the two younger Zamora children were already dead when they learned about the boys’ condition last May 7. Although they were not able to visit the family, town officials extended financial assistance to them.
Narciso, 30, became depressed after his wife, Ruth, left them to work as a house helper in Cebu City last year. She has not come home since then and is now reportedly living with another man, which drove Narciso to drinking.
Upon learning about the situation of the family through their day care worker, Abelo and her companions immediately went to their house in Barangay Kanghalo.
They brought along used clothes, some food and P1,000 in personal money. (UP Mass Comm Intern Eva Marie Gamboa)
