Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte ordered on Saturday, Jan. 28, the strict implementation of security protocols in all public schools in the city following the stabbing incidents inside the Culiat High School on Friday, Jan. 20
“Kailangan nating paigtingin ang seguridad sa ating mga paaralan upang hindi na maulit pa ang insidente na nangyari sa Culiat High School (We need to step up security in our schools so that the incident that happened at Culiat High School will not happen again,” Belmonte pointed out.
“While we consider this an isolated case, the incident underscored the need to come up with additional security interventions in our public learning institutions,” she added.
As part of the security measures, random security checking will be conducted in the city's public schools to help guarantee the safety of teachers and learners.
The city government said the Department of Public Order and Safety (DPOS) will also check the contingency and crisis management plans of public schools.
More preemptive measures will be enforced, including additional closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, guidance counselors, and values formation programs for public schools.
Belmonte also ordered barangays to propose and fund programs for out-of-school youth (OSY) for cases involving children in conflict with the law (CICL) in the city.
Based on QCPD's 2022 report, most of the CICL cases were rape and theft.
The report indicated that 87.5 percent of the said crimes involved CICLs aged 15 to 17 years old.
This prompted the city government to expand the capacity of the Molave Youth Home or Bahay Pag-asa to 340 to provide residential care facilities to more CICLs whose cases are pending before the city courts.
Belmonte said she had consulted the officials of the city's departments and stakeholders, including the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), Social Services and Development Department (SSDD), Schools Division Office (SDO), Education Affairs Unit (EAU), Assistant City Administrator for Operations, QC Public School Teachers Association, QC Parent-Teachers Association, Northcom Security and Investigation Agency, and barangay officials about the security protocols.