The DSWD Bicol through the Regional Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (RJJWC) has recently conducted series of provincial consultation-dialogue with the Five Pillar of Justice on handling cases of children in conflict with the law (CICL).

The five pillars of justice composes the following: law enforcement, prosecution, court, penology and community.

DSWD Director Arnel Garcia, chairman of the RJJWC explained that the activity is a venue to orient the Local social Welfare and Development Officers (LSWDOs) on the salient features of RA 9344 as amended by RA 10630, an “Act Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System in the Philippines. The law seek to institutionalization and strengthening of the national and regional structures through the following:

•Transfer of the administrative supervision over the JJWC secretariat from DOJ to the chairperson of the council, the DSWD.
•Creation of RJJWC to oversee the implementation of the law at the regional and local level.
•Strengthening of the JJCW National Secretariat , and
•Strengthen collaboration with the local government through an additional member of the council from the league of provincial, municipalities, cities and barangays.

Garcia likewise shared that over the years, it has been a challenge on the part of the implementers to inform the general public that the law is not punitive but rather restorative. This is to give opportunity to children who committed an offense to change and start a new life through the provision of intensive intervention for the children.The salient features of the law was also discussed as follows:

•Strengthening of center-based intervention for children above 12 years up to 15 years of age who do not incur criminal liability but a.) have committed a serious crime under Sec 20-A of the Act. B) have been found to have repeat offenses, and c.) children 12 up to 15 years of age who have been found to be dependent , abandoned, neglected, or abused by parents or guardians:
1.Provision of intensive intervention through the intensive Juvenile Intervention and Support Center of the Bahay Pag-Asa
2.Intervention to be provided through the multi-disciplinary team of the IJISC

•Protection of the cicl at all stages of contact with the juvenile justice and welfare system by installing mechanisms which will safeguard the rights of the children whether at risk or in conflict with the law and whether the child shall incur or will be exempt from criminal liability.
•Establishment and institutionalization of a referral system and centralized juvenile justice and welfare information management system that will ensure that interventions that are provided efficiently and timely can be evaluated as to their effectiveness and maybe collectively used for programs and policy planning and development.
•Mandatory development and integration of the Local Comprehensive Juvenile Intervention Program in the LGUs local development plan with a budget allocation for strengthening of the programs of LCPCs and a distinct budget to be set aside by LGU from their annual budget., and
•Allocation Of Php 400 million that will be coursed through the DPWH to fund the construction of Bahay Pag-Asa as identified priority (HUCs and provinces) by the JJWC.# # # # #eejerusalem 08-11-2015