VIGAN CITY — This well-known World Heritage City won the presidential award for being the country’s "Most Child-Friendly Component City" in 2008 in a nationwide search conducted by the Council for the Welfare of Children, it was reported.R300,000 from President Arroyo during simple awarding ceremony held in Malacañang last Thursday.

Vigan City Mayor Eva Marie Singson-Medina received a trophy and a cash reward amounting to

The Heritage City of Vigan bested the three other finalists in the component city category of the nationwide search. These were Tagum City, Tagaytay City, and Malaybalay City.

Vigan City was cited for its various high-impact programs creating an excellent "child-friendly environment" coupled with quality service and protecting the rights of children and by ensuring their survival, protection, development and participation.

The city’s child-friendly projects include the establishment of day-care educational centers in the city’s 39 barangays; the Stimulation and Therapeutic Activity Center; the Geographic Information System; the Vigan Buridek Children’s Museum -- the first in Ilocandia and the third in the entire country; the Management Information System in which vital documents and photographs are stored; the Children’s Theatre of the Burgos Memorial School West; the Solid Waste Management Program; the Children’s Hour of the Women and Children’s Desk of the Vigan police station; and the records keeping and management of the member-agencies of the Council for the Protection of Children.

The city also has the following activities that boost the physical and psycho-social development of children: the Garantisadong Pambata program, supplemental feeding program, simultaneous breastfeeding, honoring bright child achievers, scholarship program for indigent students, special education programs for children with disabilities, and inclusion of a child representative in the Local Council for the Protection of Children; the distribution of echo-tables to day-care centers and kindergarten schools, the children’s peace seminar, anti-illegal drug symposium, film showing on environmental awareness, and the Little City Government Day.