2010 CWC ANNUAL REPORT MFO 1 Coordination for Plan and Policy Formulation and Monitoring and Evaluation of Enforcement of Laws and Policy Implementation Policies on Children For the year 2010, CWC Council Board has passed six (6) resolutions such as: A Resolution Confirming the Winners and other agreements of the 2009 Presidential Awards for the Child Friendly Municipalities and Cities The Presidential Award is now on the 8 th year of implementation as a contribution to the Child Friendly Movement. An enriched guideline in the conduct of such was made allowing the National Awards Committee (NAC) directly endorse to the Council Board list of winners in different categories and LGU winners that have been able to garner the Presidential Child- Friendly Municipality/ City for three consecutive years with consistently increasing final scores shall be conferred the Hall of Fame Award. It was the Municipality of New Lucena, Iloilo and City of Naga that garnered such award. NAC conducts re-assessment and re-validation of the short listed LGUs that joined the search and the following were conferred as winners on the different categories: New Lucena, Iloilo (4 th to 6 th Class Municipality Category); San Mateo, Isabela (1 st to 3 rd Class Municipality Category); Vigan City, Ilocos Sur (Component City Category); Naga City (Independent Component City Category) and Olongapo City (Highly Urbanized City Category). A Resolution Approving the SBMS Macro Monitoring System Guidelines for National Partner Agencies in Preparing Periodic Statistical and Narrative Reports on Children The SBMS is a monitoring and reporting tool for the implementation of Child 21, the National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Memorandum of Agreement between CWC and partner agencies were forged to ensure the submission of reports on a regular basis covering the statistical and now with narrative reports that should accompany the statistical tables that are essential in having appropriate analysis and interpretation of the statistical data. Critical nutrition indicators were also integrated in the SBMS tool. 1 A Resolution Approving the CWC Legislative Agenda for Children for the 15 th Congress The Philippines as a State party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child 9CRC) is required to undertake all appropriate legislative measures, among others, for the implementation of the rights of the child recognized therein. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has noted the country’s relatively advanced legal framework but still to harmonize and bring into full conformity national legislation with provisions of the CRC. For the 15 th Congress, the following are the Council Board approved legislative agenda: 1. Strengthening the Council for the Welfare of Children 2. Strengthening Family and Alternative Parental Care Arrangements through Foster Care; 3. Calling for the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment; 4. Removing the Distinction/ Discrimination Against Illegitimate Children; 5. Protecting Children Affected by Armed Conflict and 6. Amending the Law on Statutory Rape. A Resolution Endorsing the Private Individuals to the CWC Board for Appointment by the President Executive Order 233, series of 1987, states that there should be three (3) private individuals including a child/ youth representative to comprise the CWC Council Board with a term of two years. In 2010, all of them had served the term as stipulated and now on a hold-over capacity while awaiting for appointments of the new private individuals. There are five individuals endorsed by the Council Board to the Office of the President including one child/ youth representative. A Resolution Approving the Conduct of the Study on Violence against Children and its Terms of Reference Violence against children is one more major concern but there is yet a lack of comprehensive action to fully address the various situations that violate the rights of children. CWC organized a structure called the National Network to End Violence against Children to oversee that efforts are pursued to address the situation of children affected by violence. A National Strategic Framework to End Violence was developed. However, despite the framework and the corresponding plan, there is the absence of baseline data on VAC that would allow the country to track its progress from time to time. A national baseline study will allow better understanding of the scale and nature of violence against children and establish statistically verifiable baseline at the national level of data. A Resolution Approving the National Strategy Framework on the Country HIV Response on Children and Young People The HIV and AIDS epidemic in the country has been kept low for so many years however, the infection rate is rising at an unprecedented rate with a profile that is getting younger through 2 the years. The 2009-2010 Operational Plan of the 4 th AIDS Medium Term Plan has made apparent the urgency to scale up the country response for the best interest of children and young people. Thus, this framework was developed by the Committee on HIV and AIDS to effectively address their needs and maximize our contribution to the country’s national response. The framework will serve as the basis for the design, implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of HIV and AIDS responses that will be strategic for children and young people nationwide. ENACTMENT OF THE NEW LAW ON BREASTFEEDING Republic Act No. 10028 (Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2010) was enacted into law in 16 March 2010. It amends Republic Act No. 7600 (The Rooming–In and Breastfeeding Act of 1992) by promoting breastfeeding and providing specific measures for opportunities for mothers to continue expressing their milk and/or breastfeeding their infant or young child in their places of work. The new law provides that there shall be lactation stations mandatorily established in all public or private health and non–health places of work. Lactation stations are rooms or areas in the workplace or public places where nursing mothers can breastfeed, express their milk or wash up comfortably and store their expressed milk afterwards. Standards for such room or area shall be established by the Department of Health. Workers/employees who are nursing mothers shall be granted lactation periods or break intervals to breastfeed or express their milk for their babies in their workplaces. These shall be in addition to the regular breaks for meals and shall be counted as compensable hours worked which shall not exceed a total of forty minutes for every eight–hour working period. To encourage establishments to provide for lactation stations for their nursing workers/employees, incentives shall be provided in the form of deductible expenses for income tax purposes up to twice the actual amount incurred under certain circumstances. Government offices, on the other hand, shall receive additional appropriation equivalent to the savings that may be derived resulting in complying with the new law. To raise awareness on the importance of and further promote breastfeeding, the new law declared August of every year nationwide as Breastfeeding Awareness Month. If found not implementing this law, private non–health establishments shall be imposed a fine of P50,000.00 up to P200,000.00 on first offense, P200,000.00 up to P500,000.00 on second offense, and P500,000.00 up to P1,000,000.00 with cancelled or revoked license or work permit on their offense. For violating health institutions, the health secretary shall impose sanctions against them that may be in the form of reprimand, censure or suspension of permit ot operate. For erring government officials, administrative penalties shall be imposed on them through a reprimand on first offense, suspension from one day up to 30 days on second offense, and dismissal on third offense. 3 ENACTMENT OF THE NEWBORN HEARING SCREENING LAW There is now a new law on newborn hearing screening. Republic Act No. 9709 (Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention Act of 2009) was passed into law in 12 August 2009. It provides that the government shall establish the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program (UNHSP) for the comprehensive program for the prevention, early detection and diagnosis of congenital hearing loss among the newborns and infants. It supplements the Newborn Screening Program institutionalized by virtue of Republic Act No. 9288 (Newborn Screening Act of 2004) . The Newborn Screening Program helps decrease the prevalence of the five associated disorders – phenylketonuria (PKU), congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), congenital hypothyroidism (CH), galactosemia (GAL) and glucose–6–phosphate dehydogenase (G6PD) – which causes mental disorders and death to newborns, infants and younger children. The UNHSP shall bring about measures that shall prevent and diagnose early congenital hearing loss among infants, provide referral, follow–up, recall and early intervention services to such children, and support services to their families in the communities. These services shall be undertaken by Newborn Hearing Screening Centers which shall be established nationwide. The Department of Health (DOH) is mandated by this law to be the lead agency, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), particularly the Philippine National Ear Institute (PNEI), in implementing its provisions. Under this law, the Advisory Committee on Newborn Screening created under RA 9288, shall ensure its implementation. To do such, the committee’s membership shall be expanded to include the representatives of the Philippine Society of Otorhinolaryngology and the Philippine Society of Audiology in addition to its original members which are the following: 1. Secretary of the Department of Health (Chairman); 2. Executive Director of the NIH (Vice Chairperson); 3. Undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government; 4. Executive Director of the Council for the Welfare of Children; 5. Director of the Newborn Screening Reference Center; and 6. Three (3) representatives who are a pediatrician, obstetrician, endocrinologist, family physician, nurse or midwife, either from the public or the private sector.