DAGUPAN BAGS NATIONAL CHILD-FRIENDLY CITY FINALIST

DAGUPAN CITY – This city has been conferred anew as finalist in the 2016 Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities by the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) during the Gawad Parangal held at the Rizal Hall in Malacañang Palace on December 12.
Mayor Belen T. Fernandez received the Plaque of Recognition for the city from Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Undersecretary and CWC Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Emmanuel Leyco, CWC Executive Director Mary Mitzi Cajayon-Uy, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Eduardo Año and Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary Maria Francia Laxamana.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte graced the conferment ceremony.
This was the third time that Dagupan City was finalist in the Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities since 2014. As a finalist, the city received P50,000 from the CWC.
“It is with great measure of happiness, honor and satisfaction that I received this conferment in behalf of the children of Dagupan. Our children are our true source of indescribable joy, and it is compassion and care that drives us to work harder for them. We are self motivated to pursue plans, programs, policies and projects for children because we believe that a city that takes care of its children takes care of the future,” said Fernandez.
Fernandez disclosed that like other municipalities and cities, Dagupan is a great believer in the dreams of the children.
“When we plan our activities, when we pursue our programs, when we evaluate our goals and targets, when we reassess and honestly critique our assumptions and identify gaps in our strategies, we always put the best interest of our children in mind because as Eleanor Roosevelt said the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their (children) dreams,” she said. (Joseph C. Bacani/CIO/Dec. 12, 2017)