Bontoc conferred ‘Seal of child-friendly program’

By Alpine L. Killa-Malwagay

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- Bontoc was conferred the Seal of Child-Friendly Local Governance (SCFLG) for the year 2022.
    The SCFLG is a recognition system for local government units that passed annual mandatory child-friendly local governance audit.
    The Municipality of Bontoc passed with flying colors the five indicators with a total overall rating of 90.50%.
    Bontoc Mayor Jerome “Chagsen” Tudlong, Jr., credited the accolades received by the municipality to efforts of the Bontoc LGU workforce, partner stakeholders and Bontoc community.
    He added the award was manifestation of ensuring that children are provided with best services due them.
    Tudlong called for a continuing partnership with partner stakeholders down to barangays to ensure  children’s rights and welfare are protected even in remote barangays.
    Knittle Jane Lingbanan of Municipal Planning and Development Office, said the SCFLG audit covered five indicators.
    These included rights of children to survival, development, protection, participation and governance.
    The right of children to Survival covers fully immunized children (FIC) aged 12 months old; prevalence of malnutrition among children aged 0-59 months; percentage of coverage of pregnant adolescents provided with prenatal and postpartum, percentage coverage of pregnant adolescents with prenatal services and percentage of coverage of pregnant adolescents with postpartum services.
    The right of children to development included percentage coverage of children aged 3-4 years old provided with early childhood care and development services both public and privately managed and facility, home, or community-based;  presence of ECCD services in all barangays, either private or publicly- managed, in any of the following modality-center/facility, home, community, or other modalities; percentage of barangays with at least one ECCD service; percentage of accredited or recognized center-based ECCD services; percentage of out of school children and youth assisted for enrolment / re-enrolment to school, alternative learning system or other flexible learning options; percentage of children who have dropped out from school that were reintegrated in the academic year being audited; and percentage of OSCY registered/ enrolled to schools, ALS or other flexible learning options.
    The right of children to protection included management of reported cases in need of special protection. This included the percentage of coverage of case management, case management preparation, and established referral network.
    Right of children to participation covered child representation in the Local Council for protection of children; child representative in the city/municipality CPC; child representative selection process at the city/municipal level; child representative at the Barangay CPC; development of program, project, activity or policy with children's participation in the planning, and implementation or monitoring phase.
Governance covered established and updated database on children; annual local state of children report; available and implemented local plans for children; updated Local Code for Children adopting recently issued national laws on children; and budget allocated for children's PPAs.
    Municipal Local Government Operations Officer Lourdes Claire Peel of the Department of the Interior and Local Government said the SCFLG was requirement under social protection and sensitivity programs of the Seal of Good Local Governance of the DILG.
    Other municipalities in Mountain Province that passed the SCFLG Audit were Tadian and Bauko.