Region 12 cops turned-teachers educate young on ills of illegal drugs

KORONADAL CITY - While the Senate is busy investigating the police on account of extra judicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs amidst the implementation of Project Double Barrel, police officers in PRO 12 implements various initiatives to educate the children on the ill effects of illegal drugs.Supt. Romeo Galgo, PRO-12 regional information officer, said police officers become mentors/teachers of thousands of students from various schools in the different provinces and cities of the region including those in the far flung areas. These police officers aside from performing mandated police functions have gone out of their way to educate the children on how to stay away from illegal drugs through Drugs Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), Galgo said.DARE is the prime program of this region for a long term result which does not only focus on the ill-effects of drugs but also teach the students on different skills and strategies on saying no to drugs.Hundreds of police officers who were graduate of education and allied courses were trained as lecturers of DARE program in 60 municipal police stations.In Norala Municipal Police Station, Chief Inspector Dennis Madriaga, town police chief anda trained DARE teacher, introduced the DARE on WHEELS” utilizing his personal car to go to every school to give lectures to pupils and students. Being a DARE Officer is a personal commitment and advocacy wherein as a police officer you really have to find extra-time, extra-effort and even extra-resources just to achieve the objectives of the DARE lessons” Madriaga said.Meanwhile, other DARE mentors make use of the shades of the trees just to conduct DARE lessons. On the faces of the DARE students was a pure delight and excitement of having a Police Officer as their teacher for the day, Galgo said in a statement.