A children’s advocate’s wake-up call

Being the president of the Pinoy Helping Hand Specialist Inc., a TESDA accredited assessment center for domestic helpers bound for abroad, congratulate you President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for being elected president of our country.

We are aware of the systemic corruption and other social ills that continue to beset our nation despite the numerous solutions adopted by your predecessors.

Being a physician, children’s advocate and a concerned senior citizen, I feel it my duty to find a solution to these problems as my personal contribution to our country for the good of everyone.

You will agree with me that the Filipino child is no longer just a mouth to feed; he is also a mind to nurture. What parents teach, do or say to them, whether right or wrong, is inculcated into their vulnerable minds that will have a lasting effect on their physical, spiritual, and intellectual development.

Proper parental guidance is the key to proper child-rearing.But what can parents do if they are not provided with a guide which is most effective during the formative years (6 years and under) where moral values start in the home, a good foundation preparatory to enrolling in daycare centers where there are mixtures of children with different characters.

But we cannot fully attain our objectives without the collective efforts of concerned citizens.

This made me come up with a culture-based handbook on child care, that became a 1997 national bestseller, titled “Providing Proper Care to the Pinoy Child During the Formative Years” written in English/Tagalog with over 400 illustrated presentations that provides the four essentials of child-rearing; health, care, safety and education.

This is a book that every household must have, especially those OFWs with children in the formative years who leave them under the care of relatives and nannies who can only provide custodial service, having little knowledge of proper child care. This is the very reason why children who grew up without proper guidance become absent-minded, aggressive and emotionally disturbed. They later become problems of society.

I am appealing to our readers to donate a copy of this book to poor parents who cannot afford to buy it. If we want to see meaningful changes in the life of our nation, we must avoid imitating the indifferent attitudes of people with only their self-interest in mind.

In inclusion we hope and pray that you, Mr. President, will succeed in all your official undertakings and may God bless us all. – Dr. ERNESTO LACEDA Sr., FEADCO Bldg., 161-A Shaw Blvd. cor. Vargas St., Mandaluyong City, Telefax 5337913