Police chief: One cop per village impossible for now
-A A +ATuesday, October 30, 2012
MANILA -- The deployment scheme of one cop for every barangay cannot be imposed at present due to the lack of additional personnel, the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said.
Police Director General Nicanor Bartolome said the deployment of one cop per village will be fully implemented if the current 148,000 police force will be beefed up. He lamented that in some cases, one policeman is assigned to a cluster of several adjacent barangay in some parts of the country.
To address the problem, Bartolome echoed earlier pronouncements made by Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II who wishes to add about 60,000 personnel to the PNP within the next three years.
The PNP chief also stressed that sizing up the police force will help the country's primary law enforcement agency in meeting the ideal police to population ratio of one cop for every 500 citizens.
The said ideal ratio, which is based on international standards, is also prescribed by the National Police Commission.
Last February, Bartolome noted in his list of action priorities that the country's current police-citizen ratio is 1:662. In the previous year, the ratio was 1:817 with Metro Manila at 1:702, according to the data of the National Statistical Coordination Board.
The regions of Central Luzon and Calabarzon had the lowest police population ratio at 1:1054 and 1:1224, respectively.
Bartolome said with the current annual supplemental funds from the Office of the President, the PNP could take in 6,000 recruits each year.
However, the police force is decreased annually by an average of 3,000 personnel due to retirement and separation, according to Bartolome. But still, the PNP chief expressed optimism over the beefing up of the police force.
"At any rate, we can take in as many recruits as our funds can allow. We even have enough handguns in our inventory to equip new recruits," said Bartolome.
Bartolome signed on September a P1.198-billion pistol deal that will provide 59,904 units of Glock 17 Generation 4 pistols to policemen.
The PNP believes that the said deal would fill up the needed short firearms in the police force. (Emmanuel Louis Bacani/Sunnex)
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