ATOK, Benguet – Police personnel in this town has found a way to help students in their education during this time when learning materials are delivered to the students’ homes.
Atok Municipal Police Station Chief, Maj. Zacarias Dausen, said they initiated the “Pulis Mo, Mailman Mo” project where police officers serve as couriers of learning materials for college students in the municipality.
The Atok MPS recently forged a memorandum of understanding with two higher education institutions in La Trinidad, the Cordillera Career Development College through President Sherry Junette Malaya-Tagle, and the Kings College of the Philippines through President Rev. Anita Gomaya to implement the project.
Dausen said the project aims to minimize the exposure of students and their parents to the threat of the Covid-19 as they undertake a new mode of learning this school year.
With the project, the schools will drop off the learning modules and other school materials at the Atok MPS in Sayangan along the Halsema Highway and the Community Affairs Development Unit of the MPS will be responsible in contacting the students to inform them that their learning materials arrived. The learners will then proceed to the station to pick the items at the police station.
If students cannot pick their school materials, since most of them are in far-flung barangays and transportation is not yet available, the police will deliver the school materials to the students, while also conducting their regular patrol duties in their areas of responsibility.
Dausen said personnel of the Atok police station are pat-rolling the Km. 28 to Km. 58 stretch of the Halsema Highway.
Police officers will also be retrieving the school materials which will be submitted back to the schools depending on the schedule.
Dausen said that since the start of the enhanced community quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they saw the hardships of parents and students who have been coming to the Atok Municipal Hall and police station to apply for travel papers and documents for them to travel to Baguio City and La Trinidad just to get learning materials from the different schools or submit the needed requirements.
Since there are no modes of public transport available, some parents hire vehicles to bring them to the schools to pick or submit the school materials or requirements.
Through the project, Dausen said that they are helping the parents and the students save on time and money, while ensuring their safety.
He added that this is also an opportunity for their police personnel to strengthen and sustain rapport and networks with the students, parents, and the community and also enhance and expand collaboration with more institutions and stakeholders. – Redjie M. Cawis
April 26, 2024
