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Friday, July 28, 2006
Be fit or face probe
Out of more than 200 police officers who did not take the physical fitness test because they failed in the body mass index chart, 93 are assigned at the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO).
In Oriental Negros, 60 were deemed unfit while 24 failed the BMI in Bohol.
Four police officers in Siquijor, 18 from the Cebu City Police Office, eight from the regional headquarters and nine assigned in national support units were also barred from taking the tests for failing the BMI.
No one from the Mandaue City Police Office was deemed unfit to take the physical test.
Records at the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 showed that 216 police officers in Central Visayas are not proportioned according to the body mass index (BMI) chart.
The figures do not include those who were absent.
Majority of these officers were in their 40s, although he noted a 34-year-old policeman classified as obese.
Aside from the 216 who failed the BMI, 504 were not allowed to take the test because of heart problems and diseases. Others were also injured in previous incidents and could not proceed with the physical exams.
Senior Insp. Juan Pasion, who heads the physical fitness and sports development section of the PRO 7, said those who failed to show up for the test will be placed under investigation.
The first semester physical fitness tests were conducted in April.
As for those who failed, they will have to prove they are fit enough to take next test.
If they fail three times in succession, they will have to face attrition proceedings, as they may not be fit enough to perform police duties.
PRO 7 has 5,700 members spread out to different police offices.
Police officers are required to take a physical fitness test twice a year.
If they fail in one exam, they cannot proceed to the next step.
This began in the term of then PNP Chief Panfilo Lacson, who required police officers to maintain a 34-inch waistline.
This was an effort to improve the PNP image, starting with their physical appearance.
The measurement was later changed to the BMI system after many police officers suffered health problems as a result of strict dieting and exercise in an effort to maintain the 34-inch measurement.
The exams include pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, 100-meter sprint and a long distance run.
The number of exercises per category differs from the police officer’s weight, age and gender.
Records for those who failed the physical fitness tests in the region were not yet available.
Acting Cebu City Police Director Melvin Gayotin is planning to organize a dietary and fitness exercise course for those policemen who flanked in last April’s physical fitness test.
Gayotin, who is yet to get a copy of the number of policemen in Cebu City who failed the test, said the physically unfit policemen will be temporarily assigned at the Security and Service Group for them to focus on shaping up.
Gayotin said these policemen will be monitored daily so that proper advice and appropriate exercises would be given to them.
The Cebu City Police Office used to have a “hataw time” every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon where an aerobics instructor led them in the exercise at Camp Sotero Cabahug.
However, this was stopped because some of the personnel decided to enroll in a gym or shifted to other exercises.
Gayotin said he had put up a mini-gym at the lobby and a table tennis in a vacant space near the administrative office.
The CCPO has also launched a basketball tournament among the police stations and special units.
For those who keep failing in different categories, Senior Insp. Pasion said all they had to do was take part in regular physical activities and limit their food intake.
“Naniguwang na man lang ko diri, wala man gyud ko modako,” Pasion, 54, told Sun.Star Cebu.
He added that the exercises did not have to be the same ones in the physical fitness test.
“Basta lang maglihok ka aron maka-exercise gamay, okay na na,” he said.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 28, 2006 issue)
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