Short answer. RA 7610 assigns this job to the Department of Justice and the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Section 4 required them, working with other government agencies and the private sector, to formulate a comprehensive protection program within one year of the law taking effect, covering child prostitution, trafficking, obscene material, and other abuse.
What the law says
the Department of Justice and the Department of Social Welfare and Development in coordination with other government agencies and private sector concerned
RA 7610, Section 4 — Comprehensive Protection Program. Read the full provision →
What the law says
to protect children against child prostitution and other sexual abuse; child trafficking, obscene publications and indecent shows; other acts of abuse; and circumstances which endanger child survival and normal development.
RA 7610, Section 4 — Comprehensive Protection Program. Read the full provision →
The two lead agencies
Section 4 places responsibility for drafting the program squarely on the Department of Justice and the Department of Social Welfare and Development. These two agencies were tasked with formulating the plan together, rather than either one acting alone, reflecting the law's view that child protection touches both the justice system and the social welfare system at once. That joint framing also means neither department can treat child protection as solely the other's responsibility.
Others who had to be brought in
The program was not meant to be built by two agencies in isolation. Section 4 directs coordination with other government agencies and the private sector concerned, recognizing that effective child protection requires cooperation across law enforcement, education, health, and community organizations, not a single department acting on its own. Coordination clauses like this also explain why a single case of alleged child abuse or trafficking can involve DSWD social workers, DOJ prosecutors, and local government units simultaneously.
The one-year deadline
The law gave the DOJ and DSWD one year from the Act's effectivity to formulate the comprehensive program. That deadline underscored that the protections in RA 7610 were meant to be operational quickly, backed by an actual program rather than left as a general statement of policy with no implementation plan behind it. In practice, government child-protection programs have continued to evolve well past that original one-year window, but the underlying legal mandate to maintain such a program traces back to this section.
What the program had to address
Section 4 lists the specific harms the program had to target: child prostitution and other sexual abuse, child trafficking, obscene publications and indecent shows, other acts of abuse, and circumstances endangering a child's survival and normal development. That list gives a sense of how broadly RA 7610 was designed to reach, well beyond a single type of offense. Because the list is broad rather than narrow, RA 7610 has been the legal foundation cited across a wide variety of child-protection cases over the years.
Why this matters today
Decades after this program was first required, Section 4 remains useful context for understanding RA 7610 as an institutional mandate, not just a list of crimes and penalties. When a case involves multiple agencies, that shared responsibility traces back to this provision, and anyone dealing with a child protection matter may find several agencies involved rather than one. For a family navigating a case, this mandate helps explain why more than one government office may be involved.