TO FURTHER ensure the protection of the rights and welfare of children, the City Government of Davao reorganized and reconstituted the Davao City Council for the Protection of Children (DCCPC) and the council's Inter-Agency Monitoring Task Force (IMTF) through Executive Order No. 5, series of 2024, signed on February 13.
Based on the EO, the DCCPC is responsible for the formulation, development, coordination, monitoring, and review of all local policies, ordinances, plans, programs, and activities for children to ensure that these are gender-fair, culturally relevant, and responsive to the needs of the children, and shall promote the best interest and rights of children and ensure mainstreaming in the local development agenda.
The DCCPC is also mandated to provide coordinative linkages with other agencies and institutions in the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of plans for children; as well as the establishment, maintenance, and updating of a local information system on children and their situation.
The council is also expected to conduct activities on the promotion and protection of the rights and welfare of children, including the development of information, education, and advocacy materials, assisting children in need of special protection, and referral of cases filed against child abusers to proper agencies and institutions.
Meanwhile, the IMTF is responsible for the retrieval and review of documents from the Barangay Councils for the Protection of Children (BCPCs).
The task force is also mandated to gather concerned local officers to deliberate, discuss, and clarify issues and concerns with the monitoring and evaluation of the functionality of the BCPC and compliance with the Child-friendly Local Governance Audit (CFLGA).
The DCCPC-IMTF is also tasked to advocate for support and assistance for the promotion and realization of children’s rights based on the results of the local and national assessment and evaluation.
According to the EO, the DCCPC shall be led by the City Mayor, and the chairperson of the Sangguniang Panglungsod Committee on Women, Children, and Family Relations shall sit as the co-chairperson. The City Director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) shall sit as the chairperson of the DCCPC-IMTF and will be co-chaired by an officer from the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO).
Various committees that will focus on specific concerns affecting children shall be created under the DCCPC. These are the Committee on Children’s Survival, to be led by an officer from the City Health Office (CHO); Protection Committee led by the City Director of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO); Participation Committee led by CSOs or NGOs elected by the committee; Development Committee chaired by the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Schools Division Superintendent; and a Subcommittee on Children’s Development (Early Childhood Care and Development) that will be led by an officer from the CSWDO.
The Special Office for Children’s Concerns (SOCC) shall sit as the DCCPC’s secretariat. The Secretariat shall be the repository of all BCPC-related data and shall provide documentation services and logistical support to the activities of the DCCPC and the DCCPC-IMTF.
Meanwhile, the DCCPC shall be allocated with appropriate funds under the provision of Section 15. b of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. CIO