40 cops undergo training on drug resistance education for youth

By: Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Forty policemen from Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) will undergo a four-week course training on Project Resistance Education Against Drugs for the Youth (R.E.A.D.Y).

A total of 10 police officers from BCPO and 30 personnel from Nocppo will be trained to be teachers of Grades 1 to 12 on drug resistance education.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of Drug Enforcement Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP) was the guest of honor during the opening ceremony of the training at Imay’s restaurant here yesterday.

Ferro said the Project Ready was conceptualized in 2017 to teach police trainers about their role on the drug awareness program of the government.

“It’s a working progress to find more important strategies which can help on the enhanced anti-illegal drug efforts of the PNP,” he added.

The training is one of the demand reduction efforts of the PNP.

“We are a very firm believer that if we have a solid foundation on the understanding and awareness of our youth, they could resist this temptation of being a user or being hooked to drugs,” Ferro said.

He cited a fish bowl concept, wherein he described the water as market or drug users while the fish serves as analogous to the drugs.

“If you remove the water from the fishbowl, the fish will die. Hopefully, if that’s the similar strategy we’ll be doing in the demand reduction, we will have a chance to have a manageable drug problem, if not totally eradicate it,” he said.

Through the said project, we can be able to review existing strategies and make additional efforts and approaches to make the anti-illegal drug campaign better, Ferro said.

“We have to examine why drugs still exist despite the intensified efforts of the government to get rid of it. We need to evaluate and bridge those gaps to address the problem,” he said.

Though there is no perfect solution, Ferro still urged policemen to work harder to address the drug menace in the country.

Meanwhile, Ferro said they continue to evaluate the drug situation here.

“We heard there are some head ways in the anti-drug campaign of local law enforcement here. We are hoping to sustain the gains and if there are gaps, we try to fill it up,” he said.