The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) signed a supplemental memorandum of agreement (MOA) to provide additional protection to solo parents and their children.

The pact signed on Monday was to expand the existing MOA on the provision of legal assistance extended to its qualified clients, the agency said in a statement Wednesday.

DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo and Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta signed the MOA to enforce the provision of free legal services to single parents and their children seeking financial support from the liable parents.

The partnership was sought by DSWD following the influx of requests for assistance from solo parents in relation to a lack of financial and child support from erring partners.

“The current administration has identified the need to provide and extend legal advice and assistance to victims of economic abuse, particularly those children and solo parents who need legal services to enforce financial and moral support from the concerned father and spouse,” Tulfo said.

PAO, meanwhile, committed to extending free legal services and representation to qualified and willing complainants in cases involving the enforcement of child support by establishing an office at the DSWD.

In 2013, the DSWD and PAO signed the original MOA with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines for the provision of legal assistance and other legal services to qualified beneficiaries, particularly victims of violence against women and children, children in conflict with the law, and local prospective adoptive parents who are biological parents or stepparents of the prospective adoptees in adoption cases. (PNA)