Vice President Sara Duterte has an early Christmas gift for children — a “safe space” where they can grow and develop to their full potential.
That gift is the Department of Education’s Child Protection Unit (CPU) website and the Learner Telesafe Contact Center national hotline.
The CPU website will be the backbone of Filipino learners to know about safety threats, and who to call or communicate with when threats happen.
The Learners TeleSafe Contact Center Helpline will also address the victims’ concerns such as a possible backlash, victim shaming, or harsh physical punishment.
“When I assumed my role as the DepEd Secretary in June this year, not only did I have to think of solutions to the problems that had hounded the department for years, but I also had to deal with disturbing and painful stories about learners being victims of sexual abuse,” Duterte said in her speech during the 30th National Children’s Month on November 24, 2022.
Duterte said the DepEd will be in the forefront of the campaign to end violence and sexual abuse in schools.
“DepEd will ensure a safe and nurturing learning environment by strengthening child protection mechanisms in schools,” Duterte said.
She said DepEd will be working with education champions, barangay leaders, civil society partners, and fellow child protection advocates to strengthen the Learners TeleSafe Contact Center Helpline, provide immediate assistance to our learner-victims, and bolster the existing intervention mechanism and referral system.
Child protection is close to the heart of the vice president.
In 2016, Duterte created Kean Gabriel hotline when she was still mayor of Davao City following the death of the 3-year-old boy who died in the hands of his stepfather.
Since the creation of the hotline the city has no recorded child death due to abuse.
“I learned this in Davao City, and I learned the hard way. Noong pagbalik ko as mayor, we always get deaths of children because of abuse — ginulpi, pinahirapan, and pinatay. I was asking our City Social Welfare and Development Office, “Bakit dumarating tayo pag patay na ang bata? Bakit hindi ninyo alam that there is something happening already in the houses in the community? We found out through our interviews in the communities na karamihan sa atin, hindi tayo nakikialam sa gulo ng kapitbahay natin dahil ayaw din natin magulo iyong ating paninirahan sa pamamahay natin. So what we usually do is we keep quiet, turn a blind eye, turn our heads away, and think as if hindi nangyayari iyon because that is not our problem and is not happening in our house. So ganoon ang nakita namin na culture sa mga communities,” she said.
Every Dabawenyo learned the number and the jingle, and the hotline started getting reports.
“I told them to create an anonymous way where people can report. I won’t have to tell who I am, I don’t have to tell you my name, I just have to tell you kung anong nangyayari sa bata and anong nangyayari sa bahay na iyan. Then that was very simple, we created a hotline and a jingle. I told our City Information Office to get a vanity number, iyong madaling maaalala na number, and ask someone to make a jingle and play the jingle sa entire syudad. And then we did. And ang pinakaunang natuto sa jingle ay ang mga bata. They learned the hotline, they learned the number through the jingle,” she said.
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