Puno bats for anti-crime panels in schools

From Manila to the provinces, students are being empowered to help prevent crime.

After the success of the student crime prevention program in Metro Manila, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno has called on schools in the provinces to set up their respective anti-crime programs to increase the youth’s awareness over ongoing efforts to involve the community in the government’s stepped-up campaign against criminality.

Puno asked school administrators to coordinate with the National Police Commission (Napolcom) for guidance in setting up their respective student crime prevention committees (SCPCs).

"These SCPCs would not only help increase the involvement of students in the government’s crime prevention campaign, but would also serve as a venue to heighten their awareness over the adverse effects of illegal drugs and other ills of society in which the youth are the usual victims," said Puno, who is also Napolcom chairman.

While SCPCs are already in place in many schools in Metro Manila, Puno said learning institutions in the provinces have yet to revitalize these crime prevention committees on their campuses.

The Department of Education (DepEd) already initiated the establishment of SCPCs in learning institutions as early as 1994, but the program was not revived — especially after many of the first student heads and members of these committees graduated. Thus, the Napolcom, DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are now teaming up to revitalize these SCPCs.

"The Napolcom is ready to dispatch teams outside Metro Manila to conduct workshops on the establishment of SCPCs and organize lectures for students on crime prevention, criminal justice, drug awareness and the need for community involvement in the campaign against crime," he said.

Besides helping formulate crime prevention programs, SCPCs are also tasked to conduct intensive information drives on drug abuse, alcoholism, illegal gambling, fraternity quarrels, hazing and other undesirable activities on and outside their campuses to improve the youth’s awareness of the harmful effects of such acts.

SCPCs can also recommend to their schools the conduct of seminars on crime and drug prevention and control in coordination with the Napolcom regional office, local police station or the Department of Interior and Local Government’s Emergency Patrol 117.