Bacolod City will compete in the national search for Child Friendly City after receiving the award in the regional level from the Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Iloilo City Friday.

City Social Welfare head Sally Abelarde said yesterday that Bacolod bested Iloilo in the highly-urbanized city category in the regional competition and will compete against Makati and Naga in the nationwide search. The awarding rites will be held in Malacañang on Nov. 6.

Abelarde said Bacolod was evaluated for its program and services delivery and institutional policies and funding allocated for children's program.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Bacolod was also recognized for having the most number of five-star day care centers in the country.

Although he admitted that the city is facing limitations and problems in addressing the problems involving streetchildren, Leonardia said he believes that Bacolod is far better than other cities in implementing programs for them.

Abelarde said the City Department of Social Services and Development deploys street educators who work with streetchildren and their immediate goal is to lessen the number of hours the children spend in the streets.

"We cannot totally keep them off the streets. Working with streetchildren is not an easy task," she said.

When the DSSD started its program eight years ago, she said the city had 2,121 streetchildren while, as of 2005, it has only more than 900.*NLG

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