A team of elite policemen-instructors from the Los Angeles Police Department will discuss Drug Abuse Resistance Education with Manila policemen who will teach the program in Manila schools, Mayor Joseph Estrada said on Wednesday.
Estrada said they will train more DARE instructors as they expand the coverage of DARE, in which active duty police officers teach Grades 5 and 6 pupils good decision-making skills to keep them away from drugs and other vices.
“This is my way of helping President Rodrigo Duterte in his fight against drugs, by teaching the young generation how to say ‘No’ to drugs at an early age,” he said.
“DARE is our first line of defense against illegal drugs in our schools. We must save our children before drugs get them,” the mayor added.
As chairman of DARE Philippines Association Inc., Estrada invited the Los Angeles-based DARE International to send a team of 14 instructors to give thirty-seven MPD men the basic 80-hour DARE Officer Training (DOT) course, said Dr. Antonio Abacan Jr., president of DARE Philippines Association Inc.
“After they have been trained and duly certified, the new MPD DARE instructors will train their fellow policemen,” Abacan explained.
The MPD, he said, has deployed 14 active DARE instructors since Estrada started implementing the program in Manila when he assumed office in 2013.
Last week, 29 Army soldiers from the Philippine Army-Civil Military Operations Group completed the DOT course, the first batch of military men to be DARE instructors.
“As of now, we will continue what we are doing and expand it as much as possible, considering the number of students who need to be served,” Abacan said. For this school year, 27,000 students will get DARE instruction.
Estrada asked the national government to help build the P100-million specialized drug rehabilitation and treatment center at the city-owned Manila Boystown Complex in Marikina City.
He also gives logistical support to boost the capability of the 4,500-strong city police force to combat criminality and drug abuse.
DARE Philippines is a non-profit non-government organization that brought DARE from the US to Philippine schools in 1993 through the initiative of then-vice president Estrada, who headed the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission.