TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines (6 March) --- About one year and eight months ago, an
unidentified man handed a one-day-old baby girl to a Tacloban City resident.

The girl is just one of the many abandoned children now in the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional office in the central Philippine city, which reported a growing number of abandoned and neglected children in Eastern Visayas.

Social welfare officer Marlene Kahano, unit head of DSWD-8's community-based services, said that aside from poverty, the breakdown of families and irresponsible parenthood were factors to the growing number of deserted and uncared fpr children in the region.

The DSWD record showed that the number of abandoned children rose from only 44 in 2005 to 51 and 53 in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

The DSWD also revealed that neglected children increased from 49 in 2005 to 217 and 426 in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

According to Kahano, children are considered abandoned if they have been deserted by their parents for six straight months while neglected children are those deprived of basic needs like food and education but could still go home.

The DSWD-8 report showed that most of the abandoned children from 2005 to 2007 were in Ormoc City (42), Tacloban City (41) and Leyte (30).

The DSWD also received reports of neglected children in Leyte (227), Calbayog City (157), Tacloban City (80) and Ormoc City (45) during the same period.

Aside from taking care of the abandoned children, the DSWD would file petitions with the courts for the declaration of abandonment to pave the way for their adoption, Kahano said.

On the other hand, the cases of sexual abuse of children, which rose from 114 in 2005 to 200 in 2006, declined to 78 in 2007, according to another DSWD-8 report covering 2005 to 2007.

The DSWD reported that the victims of rape reached 79 in 2005, 130 in 2006 and 55 in 2007 while the victims of incest reached 21 in 2005, 56 in 2006 and 17 in 2007. The rest were victims of acts of lasciviousness.

The total number of children given aid by DSWD-8 during the three-year period rose from 575 in 2005 to 1,145 in 2006. However, the number went down slightly to 907 in 2007.

The report included children who were victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation, physical abuse and child labor as well as those who were orphaned, had conflict with the law and got involved in armed conflict.

Kahano attributed the higher number of reported cases to their advocacy campaign.

"These cases are now out because people know where to report to," she told Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview.

The DSWD provides shelter, legal, financial help and counseling to these children.