Mangaldan PNP, DSWD Open Havens for Victims of Violence

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN – The P3 million worth havens here for children-in-conflict-mentally (CICM), battered women, and those who are victims of violence is probably the first project in Pangasinan between the Department of Social Welfare & Development and the police funded by a local government.

Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno (blue blouse) and Supt. Jackie
Candelario defended the proposed budget for the police next year before
the members of the Sangguniang Bayan.

According to Police Superintendent Jackie Candelario, the chief of police here, for two months in the second semester of 2014 he and this town mayor Bona Fe D. Vera- Parayno conceptualized how the DSWD and the police can mitigate the rises of crime by providing shelter, nutritional, and psychological aid to the victims.

“Hindi lang ito sa mga kabataan kung hindi iyong sa violence against women, mga battered wives puwede sila. Two storey ang building para silang boarders, may barracks para in house iyong mga kabataan, iyong para sa psychologist,” Candelario elaborated.
He said although this is the work for the DSWD, the presence of the policemen is indispensable as the latter provide security and deterrence to protect the former.
“If there is a man in uniform nandoon pa rin iyong matatakot sila (roomers) kasi nandiyan iyong puwede silang i-monitor”.
He said their stay at the shelter would be funded by the mayor that she would siphon from the proposed P208 million 2015 municipal budget.
The P208 million budgets if passed would be the biggest in the annals of budgeting for a first class town in Pangasinan.
Mayor Parayno said one of the factors why the budget for 2015 swelled because of the P3 million budgets for the police building and the foods and other necessities the boarders there need.
Candelario earlier proposed a P5 million funds but the Sanguniang Bayan slashed it to P3 million.
Parayno explained the police got a large chunk of the appropriation in the proposed budget so it can effectively combat the menace of drug addiction and proliferation of illegal drugs here.
“Kaya tingnan ninyo ang mga programs ko ngayon nagpu-focus kami ngayon sa mga kabataan,” stressed by Candelario.