Delinquent parents who deprive elementary education to their children now face the risk of being penalized under a new ordinance passed by the Tagbilaran City council. The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) Friday approved proposed ordinance no. 07-10 which was recommended in a joint report by the committees on education, culture, history and heraldry, social welfare, men, women and family relations and barangay affairs. Councilor Lucille Yap-Lagunay, who chairs the committees on education and social welfare, authored the resolution entitled “An Ordinance Mandating the Responsibility of Parents to the Elementary Education of their Children, Penalizing Acts of Delinquency in Sending Children to School, and for Other Purposes”. “This is a step in the right direction,” said Mayor Dan Lim who lamented that the efforts of the city to promote pre-school and elementary education are being thwarted by parents and guardians who deprive children of their right to education. Under Lim’s initiative, the city government provides free school uniforms, school bags and school supplies and even raincoats for elementary pupils in all government schools.  Lim said even the best efforts of the city government will not be enough for as long as there are delinquent parents who resist these efforts.  During its deliberations, the joint committee looked into the drop-out rates of children from grade 1 to grade 3 and found out that some of the reasons why children drop out or are constrained to drop out are “not justified”. “At the very least, the causes are addressed by the existing programs of the city government,” the joint committee noted.

The report noted that the city appropriates funds for the Multiple Intelligence Smart Start Program, the School Assistance Program and for tuition fee subsidy every year. “Despite these programs which lessen the financial burden of the parents, there are parents who still refuse to send their children to school or force them to stop schooling,” the joint report pointed out. The report added that a legislative measure is required to address this situation. The ordinance said children refers to persons below 18 or those over but are unable to fully take care of themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty or exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition. Delinquent parents or parental offenders are those who unduly abuses, neglects, deprives or refuses to send a child to elementary school or relinquishing his moral duty to enhance the development and welfare of a child through schooling. Among the prohibited acts identified in the ordinance is the gross negligence or willful refusal to enroll children in elementary school or send back their drop-out children to elementary school despite efforts from school and barangay officials.  Also included in the prohibited acts are teaching or compelling children to be mendicants, vagrants or thieves instead of sending them to elementary school and other analogous activities that hinder or disrupt the child’s elementary school.

The ordinance noted that the Children’s Welfare Code of Tagbilaran states that it is the policy of the local government that the rights of children to their survival, protection, participation and development must be given high priority. Under the ordinance, any concerned citizen may report to the barangay captain the commission of any of the prohibited acts. Within five days, the barangay captain shall summon the parents and child concerned and verify the report in the presence of a social worker. He will prepare his findings within 10 days from the time the parents and child were interviewed. In case the report is verified to have factual basis, the barangay captain shall indorse the case to the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children for counseling.  For the first offense, the violators will be penalized with an imprisonment of one month and one day to two months or a fine of not less than P1,000 but not more than P2,000 or both subject to the court’s discretion. The penalties will be doubled for the second offense while the third offense will be penalized by imprisonment of four months and one day to six months or a fine of between P4,000 to P5,000 or both subject to the court’s discretion.