The Northern Police District (NPD) plans to extend the implementation of the “Pulis Ko, Titser Ko” program, which aims to develop Grade 4 pupils to be responsible, productive, and law-abiding citizens in the future.

The Northern Police District (NPD), which is comprised of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela (Camanava), is looking for sponsors as it plans to extend the implementation of the “Pulis Ko, Titser Ko” program, which aims to develop Grade 4 pupils to be responsible, productive, and law-abiding citizens in the future.

Chief Superintendent Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr., NPD director, said that with the success of the pilot program from eight schools during its launching last year, the NPD has decided to extend the program to eight more schools in the Camanava area. However, this could only be realized with the help of kind-heart individuals.

Pagdilao directed the NPD's chiefs of several police community relations (PCR) at the station level to help the NPD look for possible benefactors to support the continuation of this project.

The project aims to teach school children subjects that will help them become responsible, productive and law abiding citizens when they grow up, the NPD official said.

Pagdilao said expanding the project will require additional number of school supplies, reading and information materials, and other instructional materials like the text books to be used by the additional pupils that the expanded program will cover.

The Pulis Ko, Titser Ko project was launched on September 19, 2009 in eight schools in the Camanava area and involved some 480 Grade 4 pupils.

Pagdilao said the launching was collaborated by the Department of Education (DepEd) local school division and the NPD Police Community Relations Division under Superintendent Ferdinand Del Rosario to formulate the curriculum and the manufacture of the text book used by the pupils under the program.

With the support of the Philippine Savings Bank (PSB) and the Bernabest Food Corporation (Siomai House), which provided snacks during of the project, the first program was successfully completed last March 15, Del Rosario said.

Del Rosario said the curriculum was patterned after the standard teaching methods for Grade 4 pupils about love of God, nationalism, respect for and obedience to our laws and law enforcers, and similar social norms, Filipino customs, and traditions with hope that these kids will emerge as responsible and productive citizens of the country. Also included in the curriculum were lessons on crime prevention and personal safety.

The Pulis Ko, Titser Ko program was a great leap on NPD’s law enforcement for reason that it enabled the police to prevent the people in the community from falling at the hands of criminals through efforts that transcend common police work, Pagdilao said.

The idea of the project was allegedly conceived based on the observation in recent years of a steady and alarming increase in the number of crimes involving kids in school, he added.

Though there are no exact number of children involved in various criminal offenses, Pagdilao said that in most cases, children are being used by those group of criminals who would like to get away with their crimes.

Normally, children (below 18 years old) found to have been linked to crimes are not charged with criminal offense, instead they are just taken for questioning and later turned over to the Department of Social Services and Development (DSWD), thus escaped from criminal prosecutions.

Police said that this usually happens because kids allegedly lack the necessary knowledge and awareness on crime prevention.