Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Cordi lady cops to wear tapis, 2-inch pumps
BANAUE, Ifugao -- Imagine a policewoman running after criminals wearing their native skirts and two inch pumps.
The public may think the idea may be quite off for a job which requires agility, but for the director of the Cordillera Police Regional Office (PRO), Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin, making policewomen here wear their native attire is a means by which Igorots may depict their culture and heritage.
During the International Igorot Conference here, Martin said these policewomen would be delegated to do body searches of tourists.
Banaue and Sagada, the top tourist destinations in the Cordillera region, will be the pilot areas for the Tourism Oriented Police, Community Oriented Police (Top Cop).
The project will be implemented soon, but policewomen would only be made to wear their native skirts on certain occasions, said Senior Superintendent Joseph Adnol, provincial director of the Ifugao police.
Festivals, important occasions of the province, visits of dignitaries, and on weekends when there is an influx of tourists would the native skirts be worn, Adnol said.
"We still have to wear the prescribed uniform of the PNP (Philippine National Police)," he stressed.
Tourism Regional Director Purificacion Molintas said they have been promoting use of native attire as one way of depicting the culture and practice of Igorots as shown in their native attires.
This project is not the first one implemented by the PNP. In hastening the police's image, the PNP also launched the Santa cops, an annual project where traffic policemen are made to wear the white and red hat worn by Santa Claus.
During the time of former PRO-Cordillera Director Noe Wong, policemen looked like lone rangers when they were made to ride horseback and wear cowboy hats, reminiscent of Cordillera's "cowboy" image and love for country music.
A few years earlier, lone ranger cops patrolled the streets of Baguio, but this was done only during the opening of classes then.
The plan was scrapped after the PNP said the plan is not practical as additional personnel and veterinarians would have to be hired to look after the horses. (RO)
