TADIAN, Mtn. Prov.– With the theme ISULONG: KALIDAD NA EDUKASYON PARA SA LAHAT NG BATA, this municipality paid tribute to children by celebrating Children’s Day last November 10 at the Poblacion here.
The gathering was pursuant to the provisions of Presidential Proclamation 267 and Municipal Ordinance No. 03 series of 2006 otherwise known as the “Tadian Children’s Code”. These national and local laws both designated the month of October as Children’s Month. However, RA 10661 transferred the celebration to the month of November by designating it as the National Children’s Month.
The celebration involving some residents from all the barangays here including personnel of Tadian MPS (Municipal Police Station) to ensure peace and order opened with a program, followed by competitions in different events like jazz chants, solo, duet, draw and tell, poem and some indigenous games.
In his opening remarks, Tadian Vice Mayor Alfonso D. Polan stressed that such celebration is significant to show the importance of our children and likewise for us to evaluate if our roles towards survival, development, protection and participation of children has been and is being complied with.
Tadian Mayor Atty. Anthony Wooden delivered the Municipal State of the Children’s Report (MSCR). The mayor stressed that the MSCR is a permanent part and requirement of the Children’s Month celebration in order for us to keep updated on the status of our children, have focus on what is to be done and to revisit our special roles amidst the challenges of the present time along the four core indicators stated by the vice mayor during his opening remarks.
On children’s survival, he said, the municipality has a Rural Health Unit with its birthing facility soon to be completed at Poblacion, Tadian while all 19 barangays have their Barangay Health Stations (BHS) with three of these upgraded and functioning as lying-in clinics. These are found in barangays Masla, Lubon and Lenga. We are now further challenged to provide health facilities at the far flung sitios, the mayor stressed.
Working in this health units are our health workers as follows: one physician, one dentist, two nurses, one medical technologist, one dental aide, 13 midwives, one sanitary inspector, 112 barangay health workers (65 are trained birth attendants), seven nursed under the Nurse Deployment Program, and one RHMPP (midwife).
In 2015, MHO record shows that there are a total of 293 birth deliveries but only 235 have undergone complete (4 or more) prenatal visits or 84% of the total live births. Barangays Banaao, Batayan, Duagan, Lubon, Sumadel and Tue have posted a perfect compliance record on pre-natal check-ups while Bunga and Kayan West posted the lowest at 53% followed by Kayan West (67%), Balaoa (71%), Cadad-anan (73%) and Dacudac (79%).
In 2015, 89% or 261 out of the 293 pregnant mothers were given iron supplements. Tue posted the lowest performance at 58% followed by barangays Bunga (59%), Balaoa (64%), Kayan West (67%) and Kayan East (71%).
On children’s development, the mayor stressed that there are 34 Day Care Workers (DCW) in the municipality and 32 of them are accredited under the processes set by DSWD while two are still to be accredited. These DCWs are working in 34 established Day Care Centers of which 25 are considered permanent and the remaining nine are borrowed facilities, with a total of 721 day care children.
There are also 26 pre-school classes distributed in the 26 elementary schools in the municipality while SNP Service coverage has consistently increased in the last three years from15 to 18 barangays in 2013 to 2014 and 19 barangays in 2015. Notably, the SNP workers are all volunteers. Despite the volunteerism, the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) recorded a gradual increase of enrollment for the last three school years.
At present, there are 10 public high schools and 1 private high school. Lubon NHS-Mabalite Extension is yet to be legislated into a separate national high school. While the only private high school operating in our municipality is the only one-of-a kind Holy Rosary High School.
Four high schools here offer Senior High, namely, Tadian School of Arts and Trades offering TVL, Sports and Arts, and Core/Applied Subjects, Cagubatan NHS offering Caregiving and GAS, Masla NHS – offering HUMMS and Carpentry and Lubon NHS – offering GAS.
For CY 2016, as per DEP-Ed ALS data, there are 29 children ages 17 yrs old and below Out of School Children attending ALS. There are also 37 out of School Children who are neither in school nor are attending ALS of which 32 are males and 5 females as per record of the 4Ps.
On children’s protection, the mayor reported that through the Municipal Council for the Protection of Children (MCPC), the functionality of all the Barangay Councils for the Protection of Children (BCPC) was sustained thru continuous orientations.
Despite our concerted efforts in our quest to have a zero incidence of any form of child abuse, we still recorded a high number of incidents involving our children. Tadian Municipality is still among the places in the province with high incidence of sexual abuse cases. This is considered as one of the gray area of our place. Hence, we must exert more effort to eradicate the persistent problem, the mayor stressed.
The mayor also reported that as of this time, there are 10 drug affected barangays in the municipality and 42 residents have surrendered. Of these, 7 are minors while 2 are females. Most of the minors who surrendered used marijuana out of curiosity while the other minors were only exploited by an adult who used them for personal gain.
On children’s participation, the conduct of Children’s Day Celebrations for the children to develop their self-confidence by joining various motivational activities shall be enhanced. Accomplishments here was witnessed in the stimulating participation of our children during the Annual Ayyoweng di LAMBAK Festival, Nutrition Month, Family Month, Crime Prevention Month, Linggo ng Kabataan celebrations, and, as mentioned earlier, their involvement in various educational and sports development activities inside and outside the municipality.
The mayor also emphasized the continuing roles of the local government saying that the well-being of our children are our common concern.
Through the FOUR (4) GIFTS FOR CHILDREN, we shall be more focused when good plans are coupled with good implementing mechanisms, such as: a Local Code for Children, Local Plan for Children, Local Investment Plan for Children and Delivery of the Local State of Children’s report.
Meanwhile, for the competitions conducted, winners in the day care category were Assiah Cyrenise Peningeo of Egan DCC for poem, Rheana Padua of Bunga DCC for draw and tell and Cyrianne Dogui-is of Bantey DCC for solo.
Winners in the elementary level were: Lubon Elementary School for Jazz Chant and Dacudac Elementary School for Kadang Kadang.
In the high school level, winners were Dacudac NHS for Pakpakaok, Juven Gapacaan for Sanggol-55 kls. category and Julan Lag-asan – 50 kls. category. Solo winners in grades 7, 8, 9 and 10 were Jed Godangan of Tadian School of Arts and Trades, Charles Caligtan of Cagubatan NHS, Rhea Baki of Cagubatan NHS and Rose Ann Bidaal of Lubon NHS, respectively, while in the duet grades 7, 8 and 9 categories, these were bagged by TSAT while the grade 10 champ was the representative of Dacudac NHS.** Oliver C. Bilayan
