Family Court judge deplores bad condition of SDC
BACOLOD CITY -- Sangguniang Panglungsod Member Celia Flor, chairperson of the Committee on Social Services and Development, vowed to look into the observation given by the Family Court regarding the condition of the Social Development Center (SDC), a detention home which the local government unit have established for youth offenders, situated at Brgy. Taculing near Bacolod City Police Headquarters.
Judge Philadelfa Pagapong-Agraviador of Regional Trial Court Branch 43 (Family Court) visited the SDC last July 5, 2008 and submitted her findings and observations to the Bacolod City Council last Wednesday.
The visitation is in accordance with Sec. 8 of R.A. 8369, otherwise known as an Act Establishing Family Courts, giving the judge of a Family Court direct control and supervision over various detention homes which the LGU have established for the youth offenders.
Judge Agraviador noted that at the entrance of SDC, there is a small office of its Head and the Social Workers assigned to it. She added the building itself is dirty, dilapidated and in the state of disrepair.
The judge also smelled the intolerable odor of unwashed bodies, unclean, leaking comfort rooms, and un-bathed children.
She also saw no furniture inside the first floor and on the outside, it can readily be seen that the sleeping quarters have no cots or beds.
Personal belongings were also strewn around and children sleep on the floor and some of them without mats.
Judge Agraviador wonders "why such condition exists at the SDC, One might say that a city can only be true to its mandate when it takes care not only of the needs of the people who are outside the ambit of the law or who are free to go about their daily lives but also of those who are considered problems of the society."
The judge had been informed that there are plans of rehabilitating the SDC or establishing a new home for problem children of the city. Agraviador also informed that there is P1 million earmarked for the renovation of the Center.