It is a definite eye opener for the Ministry of Human Development. One that has prompted the minister to begin consultations with her senior staff and CEO's as to how they will amend the foster care system to ensure that something like this never happens again.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"The severity of this circumstance, I think that the severity of the circumstance requires us to make a review and to see where we can get our public officers who have all the experience you know we have Mr Vargas we have Mr Osean, we have Ms Bradley we have many very senior and experienced public officers and of course we have our CEOs our senior CEO is Ms Santos and she has been well briefed as to what is happening. I think I could say that we have just been notified that the DPP is ordering a charge of manslaughter against both foster parents. Again it is extremely sad. I was shocked and really hurt in having to share with cabinet colleagues yesterday that the result was of the post Mortem, I mean multiple blunt force traumatic injuries is nothing trivial it is extremely serious so what we will be doing is trying to sit and make a very extensive review of our policies but I must repeat that we do not have any reason for concern or delay or maybe reticence in terms of that particular place."
JO-
"How exactly is the ministry moving forward from this? I would imagine that parents who have their children in foster care are also concerned that their children are experiencing abuse within a host family."
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"I would hope not but of course we have the responsibility to do not only periodic but often reviews. And so I don't know that we can use a term like moving on. How do you move on from such a horrific incident a tragic incident we don't seek to be moving on we are seeking to handle by the hour perhaps in terms of what we do with the burial of the child in terms of going forward, but I would like to see that I can assure the public that our ministry will be having serious discussions among our senior staff, and looking at the whole program of give your heart to a child, and that kind of thing."
"Let me just add this though. We believe that this was an isolated incident of very tragic one at that, but there is no way that we are going to take it lately in any way in terms of the discussions that we have to have going forward."
