SENATE OFFICE, Manila, January 17, 2011-With the prime measures up on the agenda including his Senate Bill Number 455-Qualifying the act of killing a member of media as murder and SB 2486-Foster Care for abused, abandoned, neglected and other children with special needs, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, chair of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development and the joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment has vowed continued effective legislations as the 15th Congress resumes plenary session today benefiting the citizenry.

SB 455 seeks to classify as murder the killing of members of broadcast and print media on the occasion of the exercise of their functions and thereby there is a need to amend the Revised Penal Code.

Jinggoy stressed that the press people were always facing dangers in the line of their duties and responsibilities in exposing the truth especially those sensitive, controversial and emotional issues, saying that the media has been continually subjected to harassment by some military elements, influential families, large corporations and the government itself even though they are giving facts on both sides, moreso, there is a need to strengthen the laws for their protection.

Meanwhile, the Senator said that under SB 2486, it seeks to give muscle to Article XV of the country’s Constitution which provides that the State shall defend the right of children to assistance; to include proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development.

Estrada added that a Foster Care program providing planned temporary substitute parental care must be made available to such child in case where the biological parents of a child are not respecting their rights or are not capable of doing so, especially in situations where he or she is abandoned, surrendered, neglected or orphaned; a victim of sexual, physical or any other form of abuse or exploitation; or under social difficulties such as being a street child, in armed conflict or a victim of child labor or trafficking.

He furthered that under the Child and Youth Welfare Code as well as under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, they should strictly observe and there is a need for the government to guarantee all the rights of the child enumerated. (Jason de Asis)