Days after FEU campus stabbing, solon pushes for anti-crime committee in schools

Days after a University of Sto. Tomas student was stabbed inside the Far Eastern University (FEU) campus in Manila, a lawmaker is pushing for a bill to create anti-crime committees in schools and universities in the country. Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, chairperson of the House committee on higher and technical education, filed House Bill 6479 proposing a student crime prevention committee in every campus in the country. “There is a need to provide a secure environment for students to enable them to better focus on their studies,” Angara said in a statement Wednesday. On Tuesday, six FEU students were charged with frustrated murder after allegedly stabbing a UST student who was attending a film-showing event at the FEU campus in Manila last week. Police investigators reported “lapses” in FEU’s campus security, as the university’s administrators vowed full cooperation in the probe. Angara’s bill tasked each student crime prevention committees to craft a crime prevention strategy for the school, which will state procedures and facilities to fight crimes in campuses, as well as mechanisms to report criminal emergencies. “Students currently enrolled in their respective universities need to know the measure undertaken by their institution, as well as courses of action in cases of emergency to guarantee security and expedient assistance, if need be,” the lawmaker said. Under HB 6479, the anti-school crime panel will be composed of the vice president for community affairs, the vice president for student affairs, and the president of the parent-teachers association. Students will be represented in the committee by the student council president, as well as the corps commander of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps or the Citizen Army Training, based on the measure. The bill is currently pending before the House committee on higher and technical education. It must get a majority vote from the panel’s member for it to be sent to the plenary for debates. — BM, GMA News