Taking care of
special sectors

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor ERIC T. LORETIZO Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

A number of reports in yesterday's DAILY STAR issue showed the persistent concern and attention geared toward the benefit of sectors that have been traditionally disadvantaged in our society.

In Dumaguete City, Mayor Agustin Perdices ordered the implementation of the Expanded Senior Citizens Act. His administration responded favorably to the plea of the organization of elderly citizens for exemptions from fees charged to the public for the use of public toilets in the city.

Silay City, on the other hand, has opened its Women's Center which was donated by a humanitarian family to respond to the needs of women, particularly victims of battery, assault and other forms of abuses at home. The center is also designed as a rallying point for empowerment through education and socio-economic opportunities that women can venture in to help augment family income, especially in these times of harsh economic conditions.

The Silay Women's Center and the support from the Dumaguete LGU should serve as an inspiration for other local government units and, perhaps, private individuals and organizations, to forge partnerships to venture into a similar initiatives for the greater good of residents of towns and cities.

Also needing persistent attention along with the senior citizens and the women's sectors are children, who are oft subjected to domestic and out-of-home physical, verbal and mental abuse. In many cases, these children are rendered helpless and traumatized because of the threats imposed and acts made by their elders and other members of the society who exercise power over them, like employers and recruiters as in the case of six minors from the province who were rescued from a nightclub in Antique last week.

The well-being of our society is a reflection of the well-being, too, of its members. For as long as we cannot ensure the right to a decent and dignified life for the people and provide an atmosphere of a wholesome life for these members, particularly the children, the elderly, the handicapped and the women, our communities will further spawn a society where helplessness, uncertainties, harassment, abuse and other forms of family troubles become the order of the day.*