CAMARINES Sur 2nd District Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte filed a measure seeking the establishment of a registry of all convicted child offenders in the country.

Under House Bill 9099, government and non-government agencies will create the National Child Abuser Registration which will be managed by the Department of Justice.

Villafuerte said children who have been victims of child abuse run away from home, fall prey to pornography and prostitution, form a dependency on alcohol and drugs and sometimes become juvenile offenders.

“Research has shown that child abuse tends to repeat itself, and many parents who abuse their children were once victims themselves,” Villafuerte said in his explanatory note.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development, other established government agencies and non-governmental organizations receive and maintain data relating to cases of abuse. The government use these data in its effort to mitigate the child abuse problem in the country.

“However, there exists no centralized national source through which a law enforcement agency can obtain data relating to persons who have committed crimes of child abuse,” Villafuerte said.

House Bill 9099 aims to establish a national system through which current and accurate information about child abusers can be obtained from a centralized course. This also aims to assist in the prevention of second incidents of child abuse by providing information about offenders.

The bill mandates the Justice Secretary to establish guidelines for the reporting of child abuser information.