Patricia Gaile Cotaoco
Investigative Media Class
Children are exploited in almost all provinces in the Philippines, in tourist spots, and even in the Internet. Yet, this does not deter nor cause a stir to the government. An evidence of this is the limited budget that government agencies, which are tasked to ensure child protection, have.
Lax as one may call it, but having a limited budget is not the only problem. There are also “unfunded laws.” This is according to Severino Gaña, Chief Prosecutor of the Department of Justice Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (DOJ-IACAT).
In a phone interview, Gaña cited Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking Law as one of the “unfunded laws.”
He said, “There is a provision (Republic Act 9208 or Anti-Trafficking Law). The funding is always included since 2004, but it is always denied. It is always taken out by the DBM (Department of Budget and Management).”
According to him, he always “put in an amount” for IACAT’s budget. “But they scrap it, they don’t approve it,” he said.
Even Tess Valentino, Social Worker Officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office said the budget they get from the government is not enough. According to her, the budget that the government allots for DSWD is divided among the 16 regional offices. The regional offices further divide their budget according to the needs of their various centers and units.
“It’s not [enough]. Kasi ang dami naming centers, ang dami naming units, ang daming clients na dumadating. Pinagkakasya namin yun [budget],” said Valentino. The “clients” she was referring to are the victims or complainants of abuse.
Mandate: Appropriate!
Republic Act 9208 is not the only Philippine legislation that requires appropriation. Republic Act 7610, Article 8, Section 33 says the same thing.
Even the international treatise United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UN CRC), of which the Philippines is a signatory, states that: “State Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social, and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international cooperation.”
These laws are written on paper, but not all of what is written in them are followed. As Gaña said, “Hindi binibigyan ng funding kahit nasa law.” He added that the DBM “just prioritize the funding” and give the money to the committee or agency which they think handles a more important task.
“Walang magagawa, DBM yan e,” he said.
The Real Score
The real score is this:
In addition to this, Vilma Cabrera, director of the Program Management Bureau of DSWD, said “as of September 2007, there is a total of 6,399 victims of children in need of special protection. Of this number, there are 26 victims of pornography.”
The data does not present the real number of cases as most cases are filed only at and handled by the local government unit’s (LGU) social workers.
Connie Salcedo, Technical Planning Officer of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), said there are also instances wherein victims do not even complain or file charges against their perpetrators. And so, the data that DSWD has is only a rough estimate of what might be a more dreadful reflection of the plight of sexually exploited children.
Ironic as it may sound, but the as the cases of sexual exploitation in children increases, the budget for the different sectors and agencies in the government (which do not, in any way, help the condition of these victims) increase as well. For quite some time now, the Department of Education (DepEd) has been enjoying its status as the government agency that has the largest budget allocation. The Department of Public Works and Highway, Department of National Defense, Department of Transportation and Communication, as well as the Department of Agriculture enjoy this privilege.
Limited Budget
This number of reported cases is only about 0.10% of the country’s population (July 2007 estimate). Yet, this is no laughing matter. Given that the data is small, then there should be no problem at all when it comes to allotting budget that would ensure child protection and rehabilitation.
Unfortunately, it is true that the government’s budget is limited. Although concerned agencies, such as the DSWD, CWC, and even the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), get their yearly increase, they claim that it is still not enough to implement all projects and programs they have proposed to accomplish for the year.
“The Commission on Human Rights has a very limited budget compared to the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), to the other departments, like DepEd,” said Atty. Brenda Canapi, Child Rights Center Director.
Salcedo said the same for CWC. “Meron kaming annual budget. Hindi enough yung budget namin. If you’re looking at a function na imo-monitor mo yung implementation ng mga batas, medyo malaki ang kailangan. CWC [only earns] less than P20 million annually,” she said.
To compensate for this lack of budget, the DSWD, CWC, and CHR ask help from international associations and organizations like the UNICEF and USAID. They also ask financial help from non-government organizations. As for IACAT, Gaña claims that they just have to “rely on [their] salary.”
According to Valentino, they are also able to increase their resources with the help of other donors. “We also generate resources from other benefactors, mga private citizens na gustong tumulong. We make it a point na ma-implement lahat yan [programs] na pri-nopose namin for the whole year,” she said.
Is Budget the Real Problem?
It seems a little odd that that despite being aware of increasing number of sexually exploited children, Salcedo (of the CWC) somehow conveyed a different view on the matter. When asked why the budget was small for such an important task, she said, “Personally, siguro it also has to…as an agency kasi you also have to prove kung ano yung need mo eh. We used to have P14 million. But of course, mahirap din siguro na lalakihan ang budget tapos hindi namin alam how to use [it].”
Are 2000+ reported cases of sexually abused children not considered a need?
She even added that the CWC needed to be more critical in identifying their function.
“Siguro isa yun sa mga kakulangan ng opinsina namin, ng CWC… Na siguro to critically identify ano ba ang dapat namin talagang ginagawa in line with our functions. So that we should really have the basis for requesting for more funds. Otherwise, dun nalang kami sa ganitong pondo,” she said.
As for Valentino, she was open about the rumors that DSWD would probably get “more or less P50 billion” for next year’s budget. However, she hesitated to answer the question directly when asked how much of their budget do they allocate for child protection and rehabilitation. She simply said, “Kasi ang system namin is general or standard yung 70 percent of our budget goes to the provision of services, service delivery. And the 30 percent goes to the administration.”
It is disheartening to note that the seemingly lack of confidence and passion in doing their jobs. How is it possible for an agency that is already considered an institution when it comes to caring for children to not fully know what its functions are and how to implement them? If everybody else who works for government agencies think the same, then it is no wonder that the Philippines is one of the most corrupt, is the poorest, and is one of the countries that has the most number of sexually exploited children. In fact, if one would further analyze the situation, the problem may not be the budget at all, but in the perceptions and dispositions of the very people working for the government agencies that are tasked to uphold the law and care for children.
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