NCRPO chief Director Ricardo de Leon said the program dubbed "Crime Prevention to Employment" would be implemented in Metro Manila’s 17 towns and cities but Mandaluyong City was chosen as the pilot site for the project.
De Leon and top officials of the Eastern Police District (EPD) headed by its director Chief Superintendent Oscar Valenzuela met with Alice Reyes, principal of the Fabella Memorial School and officials of Barangay Addition Hills on Saturday to discuss the mechanics of the program.
"The school principal and barangay officials expressed full support to our effort to curb crime by training out-of-school and jobless youths for employment and we will start today by fielding policemen in the school," said de Leon.
By deploying police community relations officers in school and barangays, De Leon said the NCRPO expects to solve rampant cases of fraternity and gang wars and other street crimes.
"We have a large number of problem children, and we are hoping to address this though our outreach program," De Leon told The Star.
Valenzuela is fielding two policemen from the Police Community Relations (PCR) to the said school not only to go after the extortionists but also to educate students on crime prevention.
"We will be conducting seminars on crime prevention in schools and later expand the scope of these training to the barangays," said Valenzuela.
The program also provides that NCRPO will train out-of-school and jobless youths while the office of Mandaluyong City Mayor Neptali Gonzales III will help them seek employment.
The city government has an outstanding memorandum of agreement (MOA) with business establishments based in Mandaluyong City for the hiring of local residents.
In Barangay Addition Hills alone, which hosts squatter families in the Correctional and Welfareville compounds, there are at least 34,000 poor residents, said Superintendent Ercison Velasquez, Mandaluyong City police chief.
In the city’s 27 barangays, Velasquez estimated the number of out-of-school and jobless youths to be between 30,000 to 50,000.
De Leon said once the program progresses, the NCRPO will fine-tune some loose ends until it became close to 100 percent perfect before being expanded to other areas in Metro Manila. – Non Alquitran