LINGAYEN – A Children’s Code will be soon be adopted in the province.

This assurance was given by Vice Governor Oscar Lambino at the end of the First North Luzon Children’s Summit held last July 4-6.

The code will be “the legacy of this administration to the province for our children,” he promised in response to the challenge of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) country representative Dr. Nicholas Alipui to the lawmakers “to redouble their investment in early childhood care”.

Alipui told the participating lawmakers that there are four best gifts they can give to the children, namely: The Local Development Plan for Children, the Investment Plan for Children, the Local Code for Children and the State of the Children Report from the different chief executives.

He said these gifts are keys to making local government units part of the Child-Friendly Movement where the rights of the Filipino children  are realized while at the same time the goals set by the Millennium  Declaration are reached.

Of the four gifts, Alipui said the Local Children’s Code is the most powerful because it seeks to implement the provisions of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the local level.

He said that as of December last year, only 69 out of 196 provinces and cities have enacted their Local Children’s Code.

Meanwhile, Executive Director Lina Laigo of the Council for the Welfare of Children said that the country is doing well in promoting children’s rights since the ratification of the CRC. He said there are already 20 laws for implementation in the country.

Philippines, he said, is the only country in Asia that has a low performance on early child care development attributed this to weak enforcement of the laws to make sure that the children are protected.

He added that with the legislators’ inputs made during the summit, the people can expect more and better legislation for children’s welfare. – EVA

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