Children must be front and center of governance

This refers to the column of Rina Jimenez David titled “Valuing children” (Opinion, 6/16/17). This particular snippet caught my attention: Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Group, speaking for the business community, averred that “there needs to be an evolution in the way we view our responsibility to children.” Businesses, he said, impact the lives of children directly, adding that business needs “to view our work through a different lens: that which also puts children front and center in our strategies and operations.”

I share this paradigm shift on how the business community should view children as a factor in their business strategies and operations. The development of children in society, setting their best interests and improving the quality of their life should also serve as bases for their business decision-making process.

I suggest that the national government and local government units, too, adopt the same method in their governance: that is, put children’s interests and welfare as the paramount consideration in their decision-making process. Formulation and implementation of laws and policies should reflect concerns for the protection of children.

Our country, after all, has a future because of these children. We may be facing devastating issues at present, but there is hope that our country will outlast all these because of the children.

Children nowadays are easily and better informed about the things around them because of the digital world. The internet and the social networks have become a natural part of their everyday life and provide favorable learning
opportunities for them.

Let us reach out to them and find out what they think are the problems of our society and how to solve them. Let us allow these children to share their thoughts with us on how we can resolve the armed conflicts in our country. The key to solving our society’s ills may just be in the hands of our children.

REGINALD B. TAMAYO, assistant city council secretary, Marikina City