P29.9-m youth facility breaks ground in Angeles City

n By BUTCH GUNIO

ANGELES City—A P29.9-million center for child care, rehabilitation and reformation center designed to be a one-stop shop for youth custody will soon rise in this city.

Mayor Carmelo Lazatin will lead the groundbreaking ceremony set on May 3 in Barangay Sta. Teresita for the upcoming facility dubbed “Kanlungan ng Kabataan.”

“Kanlungan ng Kabataan” will also house wards of the Bahay Pag-asa, and Sagip Batang Solvent for eventual reformation and restoration to the mainstream of society. The project will consist of four build- ings to accommodate a training center, a classroom for the alternative learning system, a recreation area, mess halls, and dormitories.

Alongside the Kanlungan ng Kabataan is the home-for-the-aged facility of the city government.

The city will also establish a drop-in center for rescued street families and children.

Part of Lazatin’s inauguration speech last 2022 is the establishment of Kanlungan ng Kabataan which will accommodate and transform “Batang Solvent” to productive citizens.

“Our fight against illegal dangerous drugs, which includes solvent, will remain relentless,” Lazatin has said.

According to the mayor’s chief adviser IC Calaguas, this project was first conceptualized in 2019 but delayed due to the pandemic.

“We will tap the help of the Department of Education for the alternative learning system (ALS), TESDA for the training, and of course we will have an in-house licensed therapist for the mental well-being of children,” Calaguas said. “Once in the city’s custody, children will go to school thru ALS, they will be taught skills and undergo counselling so we can reintegrate back to the community,” Calaguas said.

Conceptualized in 2021, the Adopt-APark project aims to develop under-utilized parks in each of the Metro Manila local government units by improving their usability and transforming them into functional green parks.

The project was the brainchild of former MMDA chairman and now Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos, Jr.

Under the project, the local government unit shall propose the location, design, and cost estimate, while the MMDA sets the criteria for site selection, provides funding, and implements the construction of the project.

Joel E. Zurbano

SYDNEY, Australia -- Deep-sea explorers said on Saturday they had located the wreckage of a World War II Japanese transport ship, the Montevideo Maru, which was torpedoed off the Philippines, killing more than 1,000 prisoners of war (POWs) on board, most of them Australian soldiers.