The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) welcomes President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s signing of Executive Order No. 79 which establishes the MAKABATA Program and institutionalizes the MAKABATA Helpline 1383, an agency official said on Monday (December 16).
“The DSWD welcomes the establishment of the MAKABATA Program. This is a wonderful milestone that reflects the Philippine government’s commitment to protect and uphold the rights and welfare of our children and the future generation,” Asst. Secretary Irene Dumlao, the DSWD’s spokesperson, said.
Based on EO 79, the DSWD will lead the implementation of the MAKABATA Program, a one-stop system for addressing and monitoring all issues and concerns of children in need of special protection (CNSPs).
The Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), an attached agency of the DSWD, will serve as the overall coordinating and monitoring body for the implementation of the MAKABATA Program.
The program’s key components include reporting, rescue and relief, rehabilitation, and reintegration of CNSPs. It aims to address issues on violence against children, child labor, child sexual abuse or exploitation both online and offline setting, child trafficking, and other conditions that endanger children’s development and survival.
The new executive order also institutionalizes the CWC’s MAKABATA Helpline 1383 as part of the reporting component of the MAKABATA Program. The helpline was created to protect children from all forms of child rights violations.
“Coinciding with the establishment of the MAKABATA Program is the institutionalization of the MAKABATA Helpline 1383. We are sure that the helpline’s institutionalization will strengthen our country’s child protection systems and mechanisms,” Asst. Secretary Dumlao said.
The MAKABATA Helpline 1383 is a mechanism developed to provide immediate response, monitoring, and feedback via calls, electronic mail, website/webpage, and different social media platforms that will cater to all children’s concerns, encompassing all kinds of child’s rights violations.
These include legal queries, psychosocial support, referral services to appropriate agencies involved in safeguarding children’s rights, and reporting of child abuse and emergency cases, among others. (AKDL)
