With the rise of street crime incidents involving students in Davao City, the Samahan ng Mga Mag-Aaral ng Pamantasang Ateneo de Davao (SAMAHAN), through the Office of the SAMAHAN Vice President (OSVP) heightened public awareness on safety through Mubarog: A Public Safety Seminar in coordination with the Davao City Police Office (DCPO)

The two-part seminar was centered on informing the students of the existing government public safety measures and emergency information, as well as a basic skills training and demonstration on self defense to address the students’ concerns on public safety especially upon the resumption of face-to-face classes.

DCPO Police Executive Master Sergeant John Sifuentes tackled how to prevent and control crime, stressing on the city’s culture of security and how students can take part of it. He also discussed on police visibility and their community affairs program on how to address such street crime incidents.

“Dako kaayo ug participation kagaya ninyo mga studyante ang preventing and control of crime,” Sifuentes said.

Sifuentes highlighted importance of the use of mobile gadgets to help control crime, with the use of the police hotline numbers.

The latter part of the seminar focused on the basic self defense seminar by DCPO Police Senior Master Sergeant Jay Restauro and Police Staff Sergeant Juanito Estimada, where demonstrations were done to teach the audience how to deal with criminal situations. 

These self-defense skills included basic takedowns and grappling, along with some combat martial arts that one can apply when being attacked.

Officials also recommended to have self-defense products on hand such as pepper sprays, taser flashlights and kubutan or palm stick, for added protection and in case such tactics taught are not applicable.

The initiative was held in accordance to Resolution No. 20-2022 of the 2nd Student Assembly, which was passed last August 24 at the height of said incidents. 

SAMAHAN Vice President Mary Niñalyn Espuelas previously told Atenews in an article that the seminar, an initiative from the aforementioned resolution, is a concrete and proactive response to prevent more incidents to happen, but highlighting that it is not meant to be a fix-all type of response. 

A survey was conducted after the event, where the data collected will be forwarded to the City Government of Davao once the seminar is proven helpful in mitigating the said concern of the student body.

The seminar was conducted at the Ateneo de Davao University Arrupe Hall and was livestreamed via the SAMAHAN Facebook Page.