Binay showcases Makati’s youth rehab center to ASEAN Human Rights delegates
Foreign delegates and international human rights advocates toured the Makati Youth Home as Mayor Nancy Binay highlighted the city’s community-level welfare initiatives during the 2nd Regional Forum on Human Rights Cities in ASEAN.
Binay led the city government in hosting the two-day regional assembly on 3 and 4 November organized by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in partnership with the European Union and the ASEAN Governors and Mayors Forum.
The delegation visited the Makati Youth Home, the city’s 24-hour Bahay Pag-asa facility managed by the Makati Social Welfare Department (MSWD). Under Binay’s administration, the center serves as a residential care facility for youth in conflict with the law whose court cases remain pending or who are undergoing center-based diversion and intervention programs.
The facility provides on-site Alternative Learning System (ALS) classes, round-the-clock houseparent supervision, individual care plans developed by social workers and psychologists, and structured family reintegration sessions paired with three to six months of post-discharge aftercare.
Binay stressed that embedding human rights principles into municipal administration requires practical, compassionate intervention at the local level.
“Our goal in Makati is to ensure that human rights are felt in the everyday lives of our residents, especially vulnerable sectors like our youth,” Binay said, reaffirming her administration’s commitment to child protection and juvenile justice reform.
The visiting delegation included Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, secretary-general of UCLG ASPAC; Gemma Parojinog-Estoesta of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines; Alwis Rustam, executive director of the Association of Indonesia Municipalities; Ronaldo J. Mateo, OIC-director of the National Anti-Poverty Commission; and Edgardo Cabalitan Jr., secretary general of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates. MSWD officer-in-charge Maribel M. Lumang accompanied the visitors alongside city officials.
The site visit formed part of a broader field itinerary following plenary sessions on 3 November. Delegates also surveyed the Teen Center at Makati High School and the rehabilitated Estero de Tripa de Gallina in Barangay San Isidro to observe Makati’s urban development and social service programs.