Balikatan 2023 constructs shelter for abused children in Antique

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 13, 2023): Balikatan 2023 constructs shelter for abused children in Antique (By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay)

HALFWAY HOUSE. Balikatan 2023 forces construct a multipurpose building at Inabasan Elementary School in Barangay Inabasan, Sibalom, Antique as part of their humanitarian-civic project. Department of Education Schools Division of Antique legal officer Elizabeth Felasol said in an interview Thursday (April 13, 2023) that the one-story multipurpose building will be a temporary shelter for abused children. (PNA photo courtesy of DepEd Antique)

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – A multipurpose building dubbed as “Cradle of Hope” that will provide shelter for abused children is currently being constructed in the municipality of Sibalom in Antique by the United States (US) Armed Forces and the Philippine Army as part of the humanitarian-civic project of the Balikatan 2023.

Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division of Antique legal officer Elizabeth Felasol said in an interview Thursday that the project, which costs PHP1.6 million, is being envisioned as a halfway home where abused children could seek temporary shelter.

“DepEd, about a year ago, had submitted a proposal through the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) for the construction of a building that would cater to abused children and this was submitted to the Philippine Army,” she said.

It is in support of DepEd’s Child Rights in Education desk (CREDe) program launched on May 2, 2022, per DepEd Order 003, series 2021, to ensure that the rights of the child are properly accorded them.

The one-story building project that is being constructed inside the Inabasan Elementary School in Barangay Inabasan in Sibalom by the 301st Infantry Battalion, 552nd Engineer Construction Battalion and the US forces.

The project, which had its ground-breaking on March 27, is targeted to be finished and turned over to the DepEd during the culmination program on April 28.

In a virtual press conference with Lt. Col. Vicel Jan Garsuta, the officer-in-charge of the Public Affairs Office of the Philippine Army 3rd Infantry Division, he said that Antique is one of the areas aside from Jamindan, Capiz where the Balikatan is being held in Panay Island.

He said that aside from the building construction project, there is interoperability training at the Antique Airport in San Jose de Buenavista.

The training aims to equip the country’s military forces on how to operate unspecified equipment at the airport not just during military operations but also during disasters.

Panay Island, particularly Antique province, is being frequented by a typhoon and other forms of natural disasters the reason why the province was chosen as the venue.

“There is also a sharing of best practices among the contingents,” he said.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1199350