Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Search on for outstanding cops nationwide
THE search for the Country's Outstanding Policemen in Service (Cops), an awards program recently re-launched by the Metrobank Foundation, the Rotary Club of New Manila East and the Philippine National Police (PNP), is now accepting nominations.
According to Cordillera Police Regional Director Eugene Martin, the Cops search gives recognition to men and women in uniform who have shown exemplary performance in line of service.
He explained that the Cops 2008, which is now open, was a tripartite partnership forged six years ago to propagate the heroism of good deeds and heroism of the individual policeman, and to reward their sacrifices through a nationwide search.
"Since its founding in 2002, the Cops has recognized dozens of police officers every year who are models of excellence, not only for their services, but who have gone beyond what is deemed as common peace keeping-efforts, especially in the community," Martin said.
In 1999, the Metrobank Foundation set up an endowment fund of P10 million, specifically for the recognition of outstanding policemen.
The Rotary Club of New Manila East, on the other hand, has been conducting the Best Community Oriented Policemen (Best COP) awards program since 1998. This is in recognition of the vocational and community service component of police work for the quest of peace and order over that of the punitive aspect.
The Cops program seeks to highlight the cooperative efforts between the police and the community in safeguarding peace and order in the community. The competition is a career achievement award where the entire contribution of the nominee is evaluated.
However, only seven of the most important cases and seven of the best community mobilization projects or activities will be requested to be documented, for ease of evaluation and comparison. The seven cases should be specific and not generalized.
He said it should also be emphasized that the nominee must be able to show how he or she utilized, mobilized or empowered the community or individual members of the community in order to achieve his or her objective.
The competition is open to all policemen who have been in the service for at least seven years. For the commissioned officer category, nominees should have the rank of inspector to superintendent at the time of submission of the nomination form and documents. If the nominee was a former non-commissioned officer promoted to commissioned officer, he or she should have served as a commissioned officer for at least two years. Moreover, a nominee with a rank of superintendent should not be scheduled for promotion until after the final judging phase, which will be sometime in June 2008.
For the non-commissioned officer category, nominees should have the rank of police officer 1 to senior police officer 4 at the time of the submission of the nomination form and documents. The nominee should not be scheduled for promotion to a rank of commissioned officer until after the final judging phase, which will also be sometime in June 2008.
The nominee must be of good moral character and must not have been adjudged guilty or liable in any administrative or criminal case. He or she must not have been charged under a criminal information pending in court or must not have any pending administrative charge given due course by any government administrative body.
Those who have been finalists of the same competition for two consecutive times will be requested to rest for one year before he or she may be eligible to join again.
If the nominee has been a finalist for three times, he or she shall be requested to rest for two years before he or she becomes eligible to join again.
Martin explained that nominees need not be Rotary Club members or depositors of any PSBank or Metrobank branch in order to join.
A cash reward of P250,000 will be given to the winners, and their respective units as well, courtesy of Metrobank Foundation.
Police provincial directors, chiefs of police and group directors are encouraged to nominate at least one personnel from their own unit who they believe is qualified to join the search.
As such, more personnel will be enticed to join the annual search for Cops, while their respective units will be enjoined to become more supportive of their nominations. "These policemmen and policewomen will serve as an inspiration to other colleagues to follow the culture of excellence in the PNP," Martin said.
The search intends to recognize the invaluable contributions of policemen and policewomen, in crime prevention and solution, in partnership with the community.
This is also one way of elevating the image of the police in public service.
Martin said the Cordillera Police Regional Office has already produced two awardees in the person of Senior Superintendent Joseph Adnol, former chief of the Police Community Relations Division who is now the director of the Ifugao Provincial Police Office; and Senior Police Officer 4 Mercedita Garcia, a non-commissioned officer of the Baguio City Police Office Police. They won in 2007 and 2006, respectively. (ENO)
