Pangasinan eyes drug education center

The SDEC will provide services and projects such as skills training, leadership training, literacy program, personality development, family counseling and other recreational activities

LINGAYEN, PANGASINAN — The provincial government is gearing up for the construction of Special Drug Education Center (SDEC) in the province as it conducted a three-day orientation along with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) at the Pangasinan Training and Development Center 2.

Governor Amado Espino III said that the SDEC is a community-based facility that aims to prevent out-of-school youth and street children from becoming drug addicts and to provide education to various kinds of abuse.

Stakeholders from the first and second district of Pangasinan — including municipal and city social welfare and development officers, members of the Sangguniang Kabataan, several DILG field officers and representatives from the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office — underwent training during the first day of the orientation.

DILG Provincial Director Paulino G. Lalata Jr. and Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer (PSWDO) Emilio P. Samson Jr. led the program.

Lalata expressed his gratitude to Espino in fulfilling the promise of creating an SDEC in Pangasinan.

The SDEC will be headed by the PSWDO that aims to help out-of-school youth aged 15 to 30 years old and street children 18-years-old and below.

He urged other local government units to create their own SDEC, adding that it will provide services and projects such as skills training, leadership training, literacy program, personality development, family counseling and other recreational activities.

PSWDO chief Samson vowed that the provincial government and other provincial agencies will support the SDEC in any way they can.