By Aaron Recuenco Director General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), has all police commanders to deploy at least two policemen in every public school for the resumption of classes on Monday next week. PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde
(Mark Balmores / MANILA BULLETIN) All police commanders, according to Albayalde, are also tasked to set up Police Assistance Desks near the main gate of every public school for immediate response that includes help to those bullied by out-of-school youth. “Each school should have a minimum of two policemen who would man the assistance desks. We expect the deployment for two to three days before the class opening,” said Albayalde. Millions of students are expected to go back to schools for the class opening on Monday next week. The cleaning of schools is expected to start this week. Aside from helping in the annual Brigada Eskuwela, police forces are expected to secure the students, their parents and the teachers against criminal elements. Theft, robbery and other minor street crimes usually go up during the opening of the schools. Albayalde said the presence of policemen at the vicinities of schools will surely discourage criminal elements from preying on the students. “Their presence is necessary for safety of the students and extra manpower for any concerns of the students and teachers,” said Albayalde. The official said he would leave to the commanders the decision on when to pull out the policemen who would be deployed in securing the class opening. “If they see that the situation already normalizes after the class opening, then they could already leave,” said Albayalde. As such, he said he had already instructed police commanders for close coordination with the officials of the Department of Education and the barangay officials.