DSWD cancels grant for project in Ifugao

By Juan B. Dait Jr.

LAGAWE, Ifugao -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development has withdrawn a P2.5-million grant to this province for the construction of a rehabilitation center for Ifugao juvenile delinquents or children who had been in conflict with the law.

The DSWD cancelled the grant and transferred the fund to Abra Province after the sangguniang panlalawigan failed to pass a resolution endorsing the project.

The rehabilitation center, to be called "Bahay Pagasa," was supposed to be constructed in the municipality of Lamut on a vacant government lot set aside for the project.

Miss Joyce Niwane, Ifugao social work and development officer, said that the DSWD’s request for the Ifugao SP to pass a resolution of support and endorsement for the Bahay Pagasa project was submitted to the SP, through Vice Gov. Nora Dinamling, on May 6, 2007.

"Unfortunately, the SP (provincial board) ignored the DSWD request for a resolution of support and endorsement, and as a consequence, Ifugao forfeited the grant and the project was transferred to Abra," Niwane said.

Ifugao would have been the first province in the Cordillera Region to be the recipient of a P2.5-million grant from DSWD under its nationwide Bahay Pagasa program for the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents.

The DSWD Bahay Pagasa program is an offshoot of the passage of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 or R.A. No. 9344.

The law is the Philippine government’s compliance with its commitment to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN-CRC).

A salient feature of the law is the adoption of the principles of restorative justice and other UN Convention tools in handling juveniles and the implementation of a comprehensive juvenile intervention program on all levels of the local government units.