Col. Tarek Sultan Hilal (third from right) presents a Plaque of Appreciation to Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes at an event. Kamal Kassim, Gulf Today

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Dubai Police on Saturday emphasised the significance of child protection and security at the second community forum they co-organized with the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai (PCGDXB).

The first community forum was on Aug.29, 2017.

In his speech, Dubai Police-Criminal Investigation Division deputy director Colonel Mohammad Akeel Ahli said the collaboration is aligned with their mandate in “combatting crime in partnership with various communities as Dubai (aspires to be) among the safest cities (in the world) by 2021 through the facilitation of crime reporting in a smart and fast way.”

He mentioned 999 and 901 as the numbers to dial for assistance: “Let us preserve the security of our country by cooperating with each other and observe tolerance with one another.”

Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes said the forum is an update on the laws.

“Ignorance of the law is not an excuse,” he later on stated, when interviewed regarding the top crimes hounding Filipinos in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

Cortes did not give numbers. These are narcotics, bouncing checks/inability to pay bank loans and credit card dues, and illicit relations which in some cases subsequently results in child neglect/abandonment or the inability to have child/children documented in a few to many years depriving him/them of the right to education as well as medical/health requirements.

The topics discussed on Saturday went from the significance of the Smart Police Stations (SPS) existing since Nov. 1, 2017, road safety, cybercrime, narcotics, child abuse, and illicit relationships.

In every topic, the plight of children was in one way or the other stressed.  It became glaring when SPS official 2Lt. Khalid Mohammad Al Nasser touched on illicit relationships and “baby cases.”

Al Nasser said the “free-of-human intervention” SPS’s set up in City Walk, La Mer, Arabian Ranches, Muraqqabat and The Palm have assisted residents and tourists caught up in various distressful situations such as marital/family disputes including child custody.

Dubai Police came up with the SPS’s because according to a survey, people in general are scared of men in uniform: “All you have to do is come to any of the SPS. We will help facilitate your complaints. We offer you solutions. You decide.”

Eight more SPS’s are in the blueprint for a total of 13 as Expo2020 Dubai is just around the corner.

From Jan. 2019, all the five have recorded 41,000 cases affecting mostly the low-income bracket residents. Of these, were less than 255 concerning Filipinos, two of which were two alleged rape incidents which had been facilitated.

On illicit relationships and “baby cases,” Al Nasser emphasized: “The rights and privileges of the child must be secured. The child is important. He must be documented. His nationality must be known.”

On given scenarios were the following advice as one Filipino saying goes: “Buntot mo, hila mo” (“Be responsible. Face the consequences”):

 Go to the hospital for the delivery even as women/mothers who bear children out of wedlock would be imprisoned and deported. Never be afraid of divulging the identity of the father. He too, would be arrested even when he returns to the UAE.

When faced to adopt a child, do it legally with the proper authorities such as concerned diplomatic missions that would advise the adopting parents on what to do in accordance with their respective adoption laws. Diplomatic missions must see to it that the adopting parents are fit to be adoptive parents. The Dubai Police-Anti-Narcotics Department had conducted illegal drugs awareness campaigns in all educational institutions, including the three Philippine schools.

Dubai Police-Anti-Narcotics Department/Hemaya officer Sgt. Musa Guled answered in the affirmative when asked if these must be increased, in coordination with diplomatic missions and the parents: “We can only know and protect our children if we (never fail) communicating with them.”

The consul general supported Guled’s suggestion.

Meanwhile, Al Nasser said those who want to sell goods online as through the Facebook should first get authorization from the Dubai Economic Department.