In his continuing campaign against illegal drugs, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada on Friday pressed into service more than 3,000 young elementary school students who completed the anti-drug education program Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
During the DARE Joint Culminating Program for 3,600 Grades 5 and 6 graduates of the 10-day program at San Andres Sports Center on Friday, Estrada said this “army of young DARE fighters” will be instrumental in his administration’s efforts to keep the youth away from drugs.
“They will be our front liners, our army of young DARE fighters, who will take the lead in our drug use prevention initiatives,” Estrada said after the commencement ceremonies.
“Through them, we will be able to reach out to more youth and train and help them in saying ‘No’ to drugs,” said Estrada.
In his message, Estrada reiterated his call to go harder on the vast networks of organizations and personalities engaged in drug trafficking, saying the illegal drugs situation in the country remains to be a serious threat.
Estrada said the drug menace “is overwhelming.”
“PDEA [Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency] reported that 92.1 percent of barangays in Metro Manila are drug-affected,” Estrada said. “That is why we should not relax because drugs remain to be a serious threat to our country’s future.”
In 2015, Estrada, citing statistics from the Dangerous Drugs Board, said 1.8-million Filipinos are into illegal drugs. It was also estimated the value of the illegal drug trade in the country has reached $8.4 billion as of 2013.
President Rodrigo Duterte, a few weeks after his assumption to office last year, also revealed that a high-level Chinese triad had been running the multibillion-peso illegal drug operations in the country.
As early as 1994 when he was vice president, Estrada pointed out that he was already aware of the seriousness of the illegal drug situation in the country, the reason he brought DARE in Manila to keep the youth away from drugs.
“Even then, I knew that if the drug problem were to reach crisis proportions, everything would be put in peril—including the future of young Filipinos everywhere,” said Estrada, as he addressed the Grades 5 and 6 students and their parents during the commencement ceremonies.
He said the graduation of the first batch of DARE beneficiaries “mark an important day in our objective to create a completely drug-free city for the future.”
“Drugs kill. Drugs ruin lives. Drugs will destroy the future – your future and the future of our nation,” Estrada told the DARE graduates.
DARE, Estrada further said, is the city government’s contribution to the national campaign against illegal drugs.
The 3,600 Grades 5 and six students are from 12 public elementary schools in Manila, namely Corazon De Jesus Elementary School, Centre of Excellence, P. Gomez ES, Gen. Malvar ES, Maceda ES, Lopez Jaena ES, Lukban ES, Celedonio ES, Guerrero ES, Aurora ES, Amorsolo ES, and Palma Elementary School.
Originally from the United States, DARE is a classroom instruction program that taps active duty police officers to teach Grades 5 and 6 students good decision-making skills to keep them away from drugs and other vices.
Last November, 72 policemen and soldiers graduated from the extensive DARE Officers Training (DOT) course. They are members of the MPD, Pasay City police, and from other regional police offices nationwide.
The soldiers, on the other hand, are from the Army’s Civil Military Operations Group (CMOG) based in Fort Bonifacio.
Thirty-six more policemen and soldiers finished the DOT course recently.
The new DARE officers were trained by a team of instructors from DARE America, who founded the program in Los Angeles, California, in the early ‘80’s. The American instructors were invited to Manila by Estrada himself.
Since 1993, when Estrada introduced the program in the country when he was vice president and head of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC), more than 1.5 million students have undergone DARE instructions.