BATANGAS Rep. Ralph Recto has filed a measure that seeks to advance the rights of street children by strengthening the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children.

House Bill 3183 or the proposed Street Children Welfare Act also proposes an incentives system for the private sector engaged in the promotion of the welfare of street children.

Recto cited data from the Council for the Welfare of Children which revealed that there were 250,000 street children in the country in 2012.

“The number could be more at present and no single government program seems to address the problem effectively,” he said in his explanatory note.

The bill strengthens the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children organized under Presidential Decree 603 as a preventive approach to eliminate the presence of street children in cities and municipalities.

To encourage private sector’s participation, all expenses incurred by any private individual, corporation or an NGO, in the establishment of facilities or in the performance of services, including donations, for children shall be considered as allowable deductions from gross income under the National Internal Revenue Code.