PGMA's Speech during the Launching Ceremony of Task Force Safe School: Be ACTIVE (Awareness and Communication through Involvement, Vigilance and Empowement) For a Safe Community |
Augusto Rosario Gonzales Theater, De La Salle University College of St. Benilde campus, Taft Ave., Manila (12 Nov. 2003) |
| Thank you very much, Secretary
Mike Defensor. We have excused Mayor Lito Atienza on his way out. Thank you, Lito because he's going to have a meeting with his Barangay Tanods right now. I would like to greet also Dr. Clemenia, Dr. Bernardo, Dean Lazatin, Dean Tang, Dean Bautista, Mrs. Parago, Ms. Lactao from the students, and Ms. Sy, Mr. Rufino, and our very active and much accomplished District Director of Manila, General Pete Bulaong, faculty, students, ladies and gentlemen. I truly congratulate La Salle-Manila and College of St. Benilde for this very exemplary initiative convening the task force safe school. Indeed, I agree that to maximize the full potentials of students, it's not enough to provide quality educational and co-curricular experiences. It's not even enough to provide adequate facilities, not even topnotch apprenticeship. Students must also be given an environment in which they feel safe and secure to minimize distractions that could stand in the way of sound learning. This is very important in all schools but La Salle is one of the pioneers and you have taken this initiative. I congratulate you for that - La Salle and St. Benilde. On my part, the entire archipelago is my campus. And it falls upon my shoulders to ensure that our citizens are secure in the home and the workplace. Mayor Atienza talked about law enforcement, the duties of law enforcement, and how values get turned around in a republic that is still not so strong, one such as ours. The security of our nation was on the line in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last weekend. The airport was a national security installation and the security authorities had to regain command and control of it by the most expeditious means. I understand the grief that the Villaruel family is undergoing. For a son, for a daughter, for a wife, a husband could do no wrong. I pray that time will heal the wounds in their hearts and that by that time, we hope they would realize that his death did not come from any form of personal hatred or anger. Yet I'm deeply dismayed, like Mayor Atienza, how grief and loss have been exploited by partisanship and propaganda, and those who want to destabilize. It's sad that there are those who did not go to his wake to grieve but rather to string up their placards and streamers and put down the government. The moment calls for dignity and we must accord dignity to the departed. I've directed the authorities involved to look into the security lapses that allowed the entry in the first place. And that those responsible should be immediately fired and charged with criminal negligence. This is what we must do. We must enforce the law. Terrorism is another threat that deserves our vigilance at all times. The security of metro manila is vital and important, and we need your help to be the eyes and ears of the community. It is very important to address these issues because destabilization is a force that can take advantage of any situation to bring down the democracy that we know and that we enjoy. I'm glad that the impeachment case against the chief justice has been resolved in the spirit of conciliation under the rule of law. We must have reconciliation and a newfound unity if we are to move the nation forward. For the peace of mind of the people, we must quiet down this controversy since it has already been constitutionally resolved. All sides in the dispute have acted with statesmanship and we must gather around our democratic institutions rather than erode them further. I've opened earnest back channels to all the groups involved, and I hope they will heed the call for principled reconciliation. The people must sense a unifying force in their institutions of governance or they themselves will be divided and weakened in facing the formidable challenges of fighting poverty and waging the peace including the peace and order, the safety that you the students, the faculty, the parents of La Salle and St. Benilde are looking for. A nation must be healed by a common patriotism and a sense of duty among leaders and constituencies. And I congratulate the community of La Salle-Manila and St. Benilde because you have shown this sense of duty in putting this task force together. We are determined to triumph over terrorism, to triumph over destabilization, and in the specific case of your task force, to triumph over criminality. These three are our big threats to our safety. And that is why I commend your schools for putting together measures that will prevent these threats -- criminality, terrorism, destabilization - from ever entering your campuses. We do not recall of any institution of learning that has been the target of a terrorist attack, but as you have said very clearly in your situationer, the areas around your schools have been areas where street crimes have been detected. One street crime is one street crime too many. And we hope that as you form the measures that will stop street crimes, these measures can also stop terrorism and destabilization, and its effects in this school environment. Because even if we had not had an attack, a terrorist attack on a school, it doesn't mean that it cannot happen. An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure. But out main concern, immediate and existing concern is criminality. And I agree with you that the tentacles of criminality must be cut decisively. You have stabbing incidents, and the threat of kidnapping in your midst is real. Your safe school project is an important means to eliminate this threat of criminality for the peace of mind of the students and their parents. I was asking your officials earlier if the crimes were committed by... Involved students, and they said, 'yes, they victimized students." and I said, perhaps they are drug-related because in our national statistics, 70 percent of crimes are drug-related. So, if you are able to solve the drug problem, you'll be able to solve 70 percent of the criminality in our country. Well, in the statistics, it's not so much drug-related but alcohol-related. And therefore, it means that we have to perhaps enforce rules about establishments serving alcohol in the areas around the schools. But I was telling your officials earlier, it doesn't necessarily mean that the one committing the crime has to be high on drugs when he or she is committing the crime. They could commit the crime while they're sober because they need to commit the crime to finance their habit. And many of the snatching and hold-ups are related to that. And that is why it is important for our task force also to work together against drug abuse. I have declared drug abuse as a threat to our national security. It's destroying the future of our youth, including those in the best of schools. In the war against drugs, we need the collective efforts of families, communities, the youth and various sectors of our society. Last August, I was at the University Belt. I made a pitch to make the university belt drug-free. And we have succeeded to a very great extent. I am now setting the same goal for the many schools and universities along Taft Avenue. Let me take this opportunity related to the drug threat to remind everyone that the dangerous drugs act of 2002 mandates random drug testing among students of secondary and tertiary schools. And therefore, this is something that we can do together, and your task force can participate in your partnership with the government. I congratulate your task force for partnering with the barangay governments, the police and the business establishments in the area. We should propagate this kind of cooperative undertaking not only in the school but also in the places where you live. There are many things that we can do together. I have given you a bird's eye view of some of the things that we do from the national point of view about crimes -- street crimes, drugs, kidnapping. What can we do together? How can government help you? As far as street crimes are concerned, what we have done is -- because we don't have as many policemen as we would like to, compared to say the city of New York -- what we try to do is to have what we call the police multipliers where the Barangay tanods and the security agencies of the establishments in the area of a police station work together as one team. So that they can to their rounds together and therefore the one policeman that must do the round at one particular time has a team going around with him. That is the concept of the force multiplier. And in this case, the tanods and the security agencies have to undergo training. In the schools, you have your ROTC and the substitute programs within the ROTC. It would be a good idea if your ROTC curriculum would include the work of the task force to be accredited in fulfillment of the requirements. What can the national government do to help you. In case... As I said in the case of the street crimes, we can work together by having the police supervised the joint work of patrolling. In the case of kidnapping, I have formed a special task force headed by former Secretary of National Defense Angelo Reyes no less to do the enforcement against kidnapping. And to the extent that students in your schools are more or less from affluent families, I would suggest that we have a follow-up to this launching by asking Secretary Reyes to come here and speak before you, together with his team, because I have heard the module on how schools can help prevent kidnapping as well. And on the part of drugs, the drug menace is so big. And it is related to many petty crimes and even bigger crimes that we have decided to make it, as I said earlier, a national security issue. And I have allocated from the lotto receipts of the PCSO the amount of one billion pesos, total, for the fight against drugs. Now, this amount is a lump sum and it is spent by the law enforcers in accordance with the different specific programs or projects or operations that may be submitted to the Dangerous Drugs Board or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Therefore, if you have some expenses related to building up the capability of your school, your school community in fighting drugs, and therefore fighting street crimes, I guess under General Pete Bulaong, he could submit whatever proposal you might have together, to his chief of the task force, General Aglipay who has access to these funds in the PCSO. We need to be operational aside from talking about framework and principles. And I am very glad that you are called a task force. Because that is the meaning of a task force, you are a force to reckon with and you have specific tasks that you set out to do. And so therefore, I congratulate you once again. And I thank you, once again, for helping us promote safety and security in the community. Truly you are showing yourselves to be among the great pillars of law enforcement and peace and order in our society. I congratulate the community of La Salle and St. Benilde for this initiative. Mabuhay kayong lahat! |