Category Archives: Good Practice

According to the proceeding philosophy that children in conflict with the law (CICL) should not be housed with adult criminals, but should instead be treated with love, Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. implemented a program to the Quezon City’s Molave Youth Home— providing housing to hundreds of CICL. (Innovations Harvard Website; Molave Youth Home).

Molave Youth Home is often used to threaten children who misbehave. This creates terror for the children in the community. Children who are released from Molave Youth Home are often labeled as bad children.

However, Barangay Greater Lagro made a difference. Instead of threatening the children, they schedule a study tour to Molave Youth Home. The objective of the activity is to encourage additional child-rights advocates especially the children who would eventually suggest how to address the concerns of CICLs and children at risk (CAR) in their community. The visit also aims to change the impression of the children of the community to the CICLs.

In partnership with the Office of the Vice- Mayor (OVM) of Quezon City and Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (HLAF) last October 2014 to January 2016, the Center for Restorative Action (CRA) of HLAF gave training for the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC).

In Quezon City, one of the challenges that social service delivery encounters is the lack of social workers in the field. Social workers play a vital role in handling cases of children at risk and children in conflict with the law and because of the limitation in manpower despite overloading cases in the barangay, there are instances that social workers were not able to attend some of the cases.

To address this, one of the members of Brgy. Pinyahan, a social worker took part as a volunteer in their BCPC. This volunteerism from a social worker helped the BCPC in addressing different issues. The social worker also helped in mentoring other BCPC members in different aspects regarding handling the children.

The said volunteerism from one of the members in the barangay catered to the part in which the BCPC members were able to practice resource mobilization and networking.

As the Center for Restorative Action (CRA) of Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (HLAF) concluded their Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) training, the participating barangays set up a socialization party as a finale of their BCPC training.

The training was under the partnership of HLAF with the Office of the Vice- Mayor (OVM) of Quezon City last October 2014 to January 2016. The barangays occasionally gather for an event where they can associate with each other.

The participating barangay brought food to share, inspire each other with their messages and share memories of happiness as they sing and dance together. During the first batch of socialization parties, one barangay provided a live band performance to entertain their co-trainees from other barangays. The barangay chairman of the host barangay also dedicated a song to the BCPC member trainees.

The other batch set-up video and the BCPC trainees have their group performances. Two barangay chairman dedicated a dance number to the guests.

All of these shows that the camaraderie and ties strengthen during the series of training by the CRA Team.

The Center for Restorative Action (CRA) of Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (HLAF) first empowers the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) in two highly urbanized cities in the National Capital Region specifically Quezon City and Caloocan City. With this, the CRA Team suggested coming up with an activity called BCPC Kamustahan wherein barangays come up together to share the present status of their BCPC especially about the children at risk (CAR) and children in conflict with the law (CICL).

The BCPC Kamustahan activity was taken into action by the barangays and they set up their own BCPC Kamustahan. They also set up the logistics and program of the said activity. Prior to the Kamustahan, they mentor and coach each other to be able to come up with the expected output.

This event serves as an avenue of learning from the experiences of others and an opportunity to network.

Finally, a group they can embrace their selves in.

In partnership with the Office of the Vice- Mayor (OVM) of Quezon City, Center for Restorative Action (CRA) training paid off as they witnessed how a trained barangay indulge an organized group for children at risk (CAR) and children in conflict with the law (CICL).

One of the parts of the training given by CRA in Module 2, their common problem is the participation rights of the children in their respective barangays and the involvement of the youth in their activities. Most of the youth were involved in the formation of gangs and most of them cause trouble instead of helping in their barangays.

To address this, Barangay Balingasa organized the Balingasa Youth Association (BYA) that caters to the CICLs and CAR at their barangays and also provides them with counseling. The current president of the BYA is a former CICL and one of the regular activities of BYA is the library session of their co-children.

The action that the barangay has taken is a very good exemplar of how to encourage the youth to participate in the barangay’s Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) committees and activities in order to prove that the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 can be implemented in the community level.

The support and dedication to restorative justice continue as one of the trained barangay of Center for Restorative Action (CRA) of Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (HLAF) was able to pass a child protection policy as their barangay ordinance.

One of the parts in the duration of CRA training within barangays is the child protection policy. This task is considered one of the most challenging and very difficult for the barangays to make.

However, the kagawad-in-charge of Barangay Culiat, Kagawad Cristina Bernardino, was very eager in attending training and was able to draft a policy and pass it as an ordinance on child protection policy to their barangays.

It is also noted that in the partnership with the Office of the Vice- Mayor (OVM) of Quezon City, at the end of 2014, Barangay Culiat was able to make the youth in their community participate in the BCPC committee in their barangay.

The said barangay ordinance was also passed under the partnership of HLAF with the OVM of Quezon City.

For years, the Center of Restorative Action (CRA) of Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (HLAF) is giving training for the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) to empower communities to live out restorative justice values.

Based on the experience of the CRA Team, attendance coming from the barangay officials in the training is one of the most challenging matters being encountered. With the partnership of HLAF and the Office of the Vice- Mayor (OVM) of Quezon City last October 2014 to January 2016, there were 10 barangay kagawads that finished the BCPC Basic training and the Advance Training.

During the BCPC Basic Trainings, there were seven barangay kagawads who completed the training namely: Kgd. Malou Azarcon (Bgy. San Antonio), Kgd. Hermie Diaz (Bgy. Katipunan), Kgd. Rey Mark Navarro (Bgy. San Antonio), Kgd. Zenaida Home (Bgy. Quirino 2B), Kgd. Armida Castel (Bgy. Kamuning), Bgy. Susan Dumapit-Laya (Bgy. Pinyahan), Kgd. Crisente Pedro (Bgy. Greater Lagro).

In the advance training, there are three (3) kagawad who completed the training namely: Kgd.  Malou Azarcon (Bgy. San Antonio), Kgd. Crisente Pedro (Bgy. Greater Lagro) and Kgd. Cristina Bernardino (Bgy. Culiat).

The participation of the kagawad(s) motivates other BCPC members to attend and actively participate in the training.