SIXTY children living in Barangay Mambaling were treated to some fun and food by officials and personnel of the Cebu City Police Office on Saturday, July 3, 2021.
The activity, which was held at the gym of the Archdiocesan Shrine of San Roque in Barangay Mambaling, was part of the CCPO’s observance of the 26th Police Community Relations Month being celebrated by the Philippine National Police (PNP) nationwide.
The CCPO treated the 60 children and their parents to some party games, toys and food.
Col. Josefino Ligan, CCPO director, said they decided to focus their activity on the children in response to the growing number of crimes involving minors.
Last week, two children were rescued by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in a suspected drug den in Barangay Punta Princesa. The two children had reportedly been forced by their parents to sniff illegal drugs just to calm them down.
“We all know that some children are being used by criminals to commit crimes. Some of them are being used as couriers for illegal drugs. We are initiating this program to remind our children that the police will always be with them,” Ligan said in Cebuano.
Fr. Carmelo Diola, team moderator of the Archdiocesan Shrine of San Roque in Mambaling, said the CCPO’s program is a good measure to help children in their barangay.
Diola said the 60 children they gathered are beneficiaries of their parish’s “Atong Gugma Alang sa Kabataan” (Agak) program, which he organized back in 2016 when he first started out as team moderator of the parish.
Diola admitted that there was a need to directly guide children, especially those who live in low-income communities, as they were the most susceptible when it came to being used as drug couriers.
He hopes the police can help in convincing parents to continue taking care of their children as one way of preventing them from getting involved in criminal activities. (AYB)