The Bahay Pagasa detention centers for children are worse than prisons says JJWC.
May 20, 2019 ·
The Bahay Pagasa detention centers for children are worse than prisons says JJWC
Preda attends JJWC Summit in Manila.
May 2019
The Juvenile Justice Welfare Council (JJWC) has rightly said that the Bahay Pagasa detention centers for children are worse than prisons after they made a comprehensive study and will soon release the report.
They described the harsh inhuman conditions that the children suffer and day they conditions re unhealthy and detrimental to the well being of these hundreds children behind bars in jail like conditions who are in conflict with the law.
The council has been dedicated and committed to implementing the RA 9344 law that helps children in difficult situations, when there are allegations of wrongdoing made against them. They are not to be jailed but treated with respect and given diversion and rehabilitation. Most are impoverished street children escaping violence in their home.Many are struggling for survival on the streets.
Father Shay Cullen and Mr. Francis Bermido Jr. Vice President of Preda attend a recent meeting of the JJWC in Manila
The Preda Foundation’s vice-president Francis Bermido Jr. is one of two NGOs representatives on the council assisted by Emmanuel Drewery Preda Executive Director .
Preda Foundation has supported the work of the council continually. Preda provides information and services by taking the most vulnerable and younger children from the detention jails. They are giving hundreds of them a positive healing life experience in a home of boys in Castellijos.Zambales supported by private donors.
The council’s mission is according to the Deportment of Justice Web site:
R.A. No. 9344 otherwise known as “Juvenile Justice and Welfare (JJW) Act” was signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 28 April 2006. The JJWC shall be under the supervision of the Secretary of Justice, chaired by an Undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and a member shall come from the DOJ and other agencies mentioned therein.
The JJWC for the period has come up with the Implementing Rules and Regulations R.A. No. 9344 and has conducted advocacy efforts and information dissemination about the new law to prosecutors, parole and probation officers, local government units and other stakeholders in the juvenile justice system.
The JJWC is holding it’s summit meeting this week at the Prince Hotel ,In San Marcelino St. Manila and the Preda Executive team will be present to support the stand for not lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 years of age to to 12 as is being debated at the Senate this coming week.
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