Mandaluyong City was awarded as Highly Urbanized City during the 2017 Presidential Award for the Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities (PACFMC) held on December 5, 2018 at Malacañang Palace. The prestigious award was received by City Mayor Carmelita “Menchie” Abalos together with the Regional Council for the Welfare of Children-NCR.
The PACFMC is an annual undertaking spearheaded by the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) in accordance with Executive Order No. 184 entitled “Establishing the Presidential Award for the Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities” issued on December 13, 1999. It forms part of the government’s measure to give recognition to the efforts of LGU in promoting the welfare and rights of children, development, protection, and participation as well as ensuring child-friendly governance.
The conferment ceremony was led by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Chairperson of the CWC, Rolando Bautista. PACFMC was attended by the officials in various government agencies and offices like the Philippine National Police, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government and awardees of Local Government Units from different Regions.
Secretary Bautista welcomed all the awardees and encouraged them on his message, “The Herculean challenges which lie ahead of us will remain but continuous service na may tapang at malasakit will help us overcome these challenges especially for our children and our children’s children sake.”
Bautista explained the mechanics andprocesses of how the Committee selected the Regional and National winners of the PACFMC.
Thereafter, the awardees were called one-by-one for the awarding of plaques of recognition to the National Finalists of the PACFMC and awarding of Presidential Trophies to the National Awardees.
“As our children are the country’s future, be assured that this administration will do everything to protect them from violence, abuse, criminality, illegal drugs, and other threats to their safety and well-being”, President Duterte said.###