DILG & GBM: Logical Complements to empower women and children

The Department of Interior and Local Government and the Gising Barangay Movement are organizations which naturally complement each other and deserve the other´s support.

The DILG under Sec. Ronaldo V. Puno and GBM under founder and Chairman Manuel E. Valdehueza, Jr. can consider looking at women and children as a logical starting point for their cooperation.

Just recently, DILG launched its Barangay Human Rights Program which reinforces its earlier Women & Children Protection Desks (WCPDs) in the Philippine National Police (PNP).

The Barangay Human Rights Program aims to increase the awareness of women of their basic rights and that of their children under the country´s judicial system. Puno has called on local officials to support the training initiatives under the program which also aims to enhance the proficiency of barangay officials particularly the member of the Lupon Tagapamayapa "in performing their mandated tasks and responsibilities towards good local governance."

"The training is designed to provide necessary tools and practices in the administration of the Barangay Justice System to enable the poor, particularly women and children, to pursue justice through increased knowledge about basic rights and the judicial system," Puno said.

The DILG´s training arm, the Local Government Academy, and DILG regional offices will conduct the training with the theme "The Barangay Human Rights Program: Accessing Justice through Gender-Responsive and Child-Friendly Barangay Justice System" in the country´s capital towns and cities.

If Puno wants to see this program sustain itself even beyond his stewardship, the GBM is the logical partner to make it work. No amount of training can build the moral fiber needed to dispense justice, especially in the country´s rural areas where women and children are still considered the lesser citizens in a judicial system dominated by men and the Filipino´s "macho mystique," unless those who have the least are given opportunities to develop themselves and build up their participation in society.

As expressed in its "Guide to Empowering the Filipino People", the GBM is committed to peaceful and democratic methods even as it seeks revolutionary change. It shall engage in political and social action and pursue administrative and legislative measures that promote people empowerment and quality of life for their neighbourhoods.

Hence, besides the WCPDs, where distressed women and children can turn to for assistance whenever they are abused and exploited, the DILG now has a complementary program to help prevent women and children from becoming victims by educating them of their basic constitutional rights and in GBM their very own organization to strengthen the barangay as an institutional framework to effectively enforce programs like the WCPDs and the Barangay Human Rights Program.

Since this training on human rights at the barangay level aims to ensure the smooth implementation of the Department´s Local Government Human Rights Program to ensure the accountability of local authorities in the protection and promotion of human rights in their respective localities, what better organization to partner with than the GBM which would open to its implementers a nationwide network of resources to make it work?

DILG trainers have been tasked to go to all capital towns and cities in every region to spearhead the training, which will be conducted in partnership with other stakeholders in the locality. This program, along with the establishment of over 1,800 WCPDs nationwide, should in time result to the empowerment of society´s most vulnerable sectors, particularly women and children.

With a linkage with the DBM as the most logical partner for these initiatives, all stakeholders involved in this initiative naturally complement each other, and that synergy should work to make the totality of its impact greater than the sum of its individual parts.