MANILA Mayor Joseph E. Estrada said he has reinforced the implementation of the city’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (Dare) program to teach Grades 5 and 6 students about the dangers of using prohibited substances, and good decision-making skills to keep them away from this vice and other bad habits.
In a simple graduation ceremony held recently at the Legarda Elementary School, the local chief executive dared the 900 graduates from the city’s public schools to say “no to illegal drugs.”
They just finished a 10-day Dare training, a short course program that the mayor started in September 2015 to teach the youth about the risks of drug abuse.
According to him, many young people had lost their future, and more families were broken due to the bad effects of using illegal drugs.
“That is why we have a DARE program, to address the perennial drugs abuse menace,” Estrada said in Filipino during his keynote speech.
“Drugs kill. Drugs ruin lives. Drugs will destroy the future—your future and the future of our nation,” he added.
Estrada reminded the crowd, comprised of the students, school officials, teachers, Manila Police District members, DARE Philippines officers and invited guests, that the drug problem in the country is very serious.
In fact, he cited that data from the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) show that 92.1 percent of communities in Metro Manila are drug infested.
The PDEA, likewise, reported that there were more drug addicts in the metropolis alone in 2012, he added.
The city mayor reminded the graduates that the local government is doing its best to guarantee their well-being and keep them away from harmful drugs and anything that would put them in danger.
“Per President Rodrigo Duterte, if you use drugs, your brain will become small. And that is based on medical and scientific studies,” Estrada said.
He warned the students that this would likely happen to them if they use and get addicted to illegal substances at a young age.
“The bottom line—stay away from drugs. Focus on your studies,” he advised them.
Mayor Estrada thanked the parents and DARE teachers of the students. He asked them to continue to work together to safeguard the children’s future.
The DARE has been an anti-harmful drug program of the local chief executive since he assumed office in 2013.
This program was originally developed in Los Angeles, California, in the United States, where uniformed law-enforcement officers teach the curriculum in school, aiming to equip young people with the skills to resist peer pressure to experiment with harmful drugs.
Currently, Estrada serves as the chairman of DARE Philippines with more than 1.5 million school children from the short course.