THIRTY-FIVE students from the “Help and Educate a Child Program” of the San Pedro Police (SPP), who were formerly tagged as children-in-conflict with the law (CICL), graduated from senior high school and elementary at the Emar Human and Environmental College last Friday, April 6.
“So far, they are the first batch of students who graduated from our program,” SPP Police Community Relations officer Senior Joy Albiso said in an interview with VoxPop Davao.
Albiso said the program that started in May 2015 was created to protect children and prevent juvenile delinquency.
“These kids have no choice. It’s out of poverty [that] they do crimes or succumb to illegal recruitment, hindi nila alam kung ano [ang] pinasukan nila (they don’t know what they got themselves into). Our goal is to help them,” she said.
The officer added that the cases of youth involved in crimes have been skyrocketing for the past few years.
“Dumadami yung cases sa mga bata ngayon na related sa (There is an increase in cases of youth involved in crimes relating to) gangsterism, riots, theft, early pregnancy and robbery,” she said.
Albiso added that through the program of the San Pedro Police Station, the alarming increase of incidents involving CICL, Children-at-Risk and out-of-school youth are being addressed.
“Each station in Davao City is mandated to have the best practice. For San Pedro Police, this is what we do. Aside from us, the Talomo Police Station also has the same program,” she said.
“Even after graduation, we will still provide for their schooling. It’s part of our sustainability program,” Albiso said.
