Economic resurgence, coupled with efficient governance, has given the government greater opportunity to improve the country’s police force, President Benigno S. Aquino III said on Thursday (March 26).
Addressing the graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), the President said that when he assumed his post several years ago, the country had a less effective police force.
The members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) then did not have enough and modern weapons to do their job effectively, he said.
“Sa ating pagtahak sa tuwid na landas, patuloy nating tinutugunan ang mga dinatnan nating kakulangan sa inyong hanay,” he said in his speech before the PNPA graduates.
“Ang hangad natin: lalong mapaunlad ang inyong kasanayan para sa tinaguriang ‘shoot, scoot, and communicate’.”
In 2014, he said, the government successfully addressed the backlog in pistols for policemen by purchasing 74,879 Glock 9mm pistols.
This is in addition to 12,399 handheld radios, and 144 patrol jeeps given to the PNP from 2010 until 2014, he added.
Last March, the government hired 4,859 non-uniformed personnel to do administrative jobs in the PNP, he said, noting that last year, the PNP also filled 9,860 Police Officer 1 (PO1) positions in the police force.
The President further said that the government has allocated P1.64 billion in this year’s national budget to fill 10,000 PO1 positions in the PNP.
With regards to the PNP’s Special Action Force, he said the police is carefully studying the lessons learned from the Mamasapano incident to minimize risks among policemen as they carry out operations.
“Daragdagan pa natin ang kanilang pagsasanay at kagamitan, at ibubuhos ang lahat ng pagkalingang nararapat [sa inyo] bilang isang elite unit ng PNP,” he said.
He also reported that the PNP’s Oplan Lambat Sibat has been able to reduce crime rate in the National Capital Region.
The PNP has recorded that the general criminality rate has decreased from 918 per week from January to June 2014 to a weekly average of 471 these past four weeks, he said.
Last week, the PNP was also able to reduce the general criminality rate to 400, he noted.
President Aquino challenged the PNP leadership to implement measures that will strengthen camaraderie among policemen by eliminating the culture of divisiveness within the police force.
“Ang hamon nga sa susunod na pinuno ng ating Pambansang Kapulisan: Maglatag ng plano upang higit pang mapagtibay ang pagkakaisa ng ating mga pulis. Baguhin na natin ang kultura na parang may magkakahiwalay na tribo sa PNP; may bata si ganito, may bata si ganyan. Iisa dapat ang ating paghakbang upang maging epektibong tagapagbantay ng ating mamamayan,” he said. PND (as)
