New gov’t hotline to boost campaign vs child abuse

The Department of Social Welfare and Development urged the public to utilize the Makabata Helpline 1383 to report cases of child abuse.
    The Makabata Helpline is a mechanism developed by the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), an attached agency of the DSWD, to provide immediate response, monitoring, and feedback via calls, electronic mail, and different social media platforms about all child rights and concerns.
    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.
    Since its launch in November 2022, a total of 156 reports via text, calls, emails, and chat have been received by the helpline, of which, 76.28 percent of cases were closed, while 19.23 percent are pending with limited traction and 4.48 percent are on-going.
    “The CWC is consistently seeking out partnerships with non-government organizations and national government agencies to strengthen the implementation of the Makabata Helpline 1383 because we believe that this mechanism will truly help us to protect and uphold the rights of children,” DSWD Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications Romel Lopez said.
    Lopez, who is also the DSWD spokesperson, reminded the public not to use the hotline for prank calls or false inquiries.
    “We continue to remind the public that this hotline must only be used for emergency cases. So please avoid making prank calls or false reports because it may cause grave consequences for those who are in distress,” Lopez explained. -- Jing Villamente