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Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Cities pledge help for assigned cops
Cebu City is helping Mindanao policemen billeted at the One Citilink Terminal because it wants to optimize whatever help they could provide, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said yesterday.
The new policemen assigned in Mandaue City will also get a P500 monthly allowance from the local government unit but an ordinance covering the granting of the allowance will have to be drafted first.
Mandaue City Councilor Allan Borbajo, chairman of the committee on police, fire and penology, said yesterday that existing ordinances granting incentives to policemen do not have provisions that fit the circumstances of the new ones.
These measures are for the cash allowance of those assigned in Mandaue City and the granting of incentives to policemen who capture criminals in the list of most wanted people.
Stipend
In an interview, Borbajo said the City could grant a stipend to the 96 policemen who arrived in the city last week to augment security for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in December.
Borbajo said he will draft an ordinance specifically for the granting of an allowance to the policemen.
He is still gathering documents, such as the orders from Camp Crame on their assignment, to support the measure. A list of the policemen will also be attached.
Mandaue City has an ordinance granting cash allowance to policemen assigned at the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO).
Each policeman receives at least P500 a month for their first six months and about P750 starting on their seventh month.
The amount reaches P1,000 for those who have stayed for a year.
The Cebu City Government, on the other hand, will also buy additional folding beds; and provide food, nurses to check on the policemen’s health, and social workers to assist them.
Mayor Osmeña said that when Cebu City helped during the Ormoc City flashflood in 1991, there was one person assigned to cater to the personal needs of three volunteers.
That is to keep the volunteers morale high and to keep them focused on their job, which was to help the surviving Ormoc residents.
Like fire victims, 267 policemen billeted at the One Citilink Terminal just slept on flattened boxes when Sun.Star Cebu visited them at the second floor of the terminal shortly after their arrival last Friday.
Officials said the policemen are used to undesirable living conditions, which are part of their training.
The mayor, however, said he wanted the policemen to be as comfortable as possible so they could give their best to their assigned tasks in Cebu City, which is a place foreign to them.
Not enough
“It is not enough to say that ‘they can take it, that they can sleep on the floor, I’m sure they can’,” he said, referring to an earlier statement of Chief Supt. Silverio Alarcio Jr.
Alarcio, Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 director, said last Sunday that the policemen should get used to simple living conditions.
If they are looking for comfort, he added, they are only adding to his command’s problems.
He said the areas where the policemen are housed should be enough, as part of their training is to learn how to adjust to different conditions.
Alarcio said that as the Asean summit draws near, the policemen will be transferred near hotels where delegates will be staying. They will be living in tents by then.
But the mayor said the policemen “cannot function to the optimum unless you support them.”
That is why Cebu City is giving each of the policemen P1,000 a month in subsistence allowance aside from providing them with beds, mobile kitchen, medical support, and other forms of help.
Last Saturday, City Hall delivered 140 beds provided for by Carlos A. Gothong Lines Inc. so the policemen will have better beds to recline on.
In Mandaue City, new policemen, mostly from Regions 8, 10 and 11 will be deployed to major thoroughfares and crime-prone areas, aside from the MCPO headquarters and the six police stations.
Vital installations such as the two Mactan-Mandaue bridges will also be guarded.
Big help
In a separate interview, MCPO director Eduardo Catabas said yesterday that the P500 allowance for the augmentation force is already a big help to them.
He said another group composed of 105 policemen from Tacloban City will arrive in Mandaue City this week.
While the first batch that arrived last week is staying at the Mandaue City Sports and Cultural Complex, the new batch arriving this week will stay at the San Roque Parish Gym in Barangay Subangdaku.
Additional personnel from Region 6 and the Caraga Region also arrived to augment the forces of the Cebu Provincial Police Office. (RHM/AAG)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 23, 2006 issue)
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