Manila: The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) will establish a referral system that will help child victims of violent crimes under the custody of the agency's Residential Care Facilities (RCFs) to receive monetary compensation. 'Child victims of violent crimes often carry invisible scars that are very difficult to heal. One of the ways to show support for their recovery is by providing monetary compensation that can cover their various expenses for treatment, therapy, legal fees, education, and basic needs,' DSWD spokesperson Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said in a news release on Monday. 'The administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. recognizes the urgency and necessity to assist child victims of violent crimes in their long-term healing and recovery.' Dumlao said the new partnership between the DSWD and the DOJ, through its Bureau of Claims (BOC), will be forged on Tuesday. 'It will be beneficial to jumpstart the recovery and reintegration of child victim-survivors,' she said.

According to Philippines News Agency, under the memorandum of agreement, the DSWD will assist and refer child-victims from the agency's RCFs to the DOJ's Victim Compensation Program (VCP). The VCP aims to provide a certain amount of monetary compensation to victims of violent crimes to recompense to a certain extent the damage to the lives of those who suffered from lawlessness and grave injustice. The DOJ-BOC, on the other hand, will evaluate and process the requests for claims by the DSWD, as well as endorse cases to the DSWD that fall outside the scope of Republic Act 7309 (An Act Creating a Board of Claims under the Department of Justice for Victims of Unjust Imprisonment or Detention and Victims of Violent Crimes).

The agreement covers child victims of rape, torture, enforced and involuntary disappearance, trafficking in persons, and online sexual abuse and exploitation (OSAEC), among others.