KINDERGARTEN and Grades 1 and 2 students at the Busay Elementary School received school supplies from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) yesterday.
The CCPO organized the activity to help parents with school expenses.
“We chose Busay because we heard that the dry spell has affected the livelihood of the parents, who are mostly engaged in farming and raising flowers,” said Chief Insp. Enrique Belciña, head of the CCPO’s Police Community Relations (PCR).
The policemen arrived at 9 a.m. with their “bundles of joy.” The children welcomed them with a chicken dance.
Free food
After the games and dance numbers, CCPO office-in-charge Marciano Batiancela Jr. distributed the school supplies to 72 first-graders, 83 second-graders and 45 kindergarten students.
The 30 students who were absent can get their school supplies from principal Pamela Oliva.
Each student received five pencils, four pads of paper, four notebooks, erasers, a ruler and a sharpener.
The children were then treated to free food, sponsored by Grandsan Trucking Services, whose owner is Cebu City Intelligence Branch Chief Romeo Santander’s brother-in-law.
‘Not monsters’
It has been a tradition of CCPO to hold outreach programs to selected elementary schools at the start of every school year. Last year, it distributed freebies to three schools in the city.
Belciña hopes the program will remind children that policemen are not “monsters.”
“Ang uban parents makakita og pulis, hadlokon dayon ang anak mora’g nakakita og abat (Parents use police to scare their children),” Belciña said.
Belciña said they have yet to pick two schools for their outreach program.
He also urged the community to donate school supplies at their PCR office on Gorordo Ave.
The activity ended with the children standing side-by-side with their parents, singing the song “Salamat.”