Wednesday, January 24, 2007 100 rookie cops may be sacked
ALTHOUGH he was satisfied with and grateful to most of the 800 field training police (FTP) officers sent to augment their forces, Senior Supt. Vicente Loot admitted he was disappointed in about 100 of them.
He said these officers committed “serious infractions and abuses” during their stay in Cebu.
The 100 field trainees are from Region 6 (Western Visayas) and were sent here to augment Task Force Cebu, which was ordered to secure delegates of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit.
Some also helped deter crimes in Cebu City, which Acting Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador is happy about.
Following the suggestions of Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus, Loot said he has proposed that the erring recruits be dismissed from the police service.
His recommendation was submitted to Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Silverio Alarcio Jr. in December yet.
This was shortly after four of the field trainees were accused of creating trouble while drunk last November.
Fitness
Police officers Eugene Chicka Altar, Robert Magturo, Dexter Vegafria and Crispin Cajilo were accused of firing their guns indiscriminately.
Aside from that incident, there were others who were allegedly “doing everything except their jobs.”
“It will all depend on their regional office. Our role is just to recommend based on our observations,” Loot said.
Since they are still in training, Loot explained that their performance was subject to assessment and evaluation, to see if they are fit to stay as members of the Philippine National Police.
Loot added that he did not encounter problems with the other field trainees from Regions 12 and 13.
“Many of them were also very talented and we would not have been successful in the summit without them,” he said.
Unlike Loot, Comendador said CCPO did not have any major problem with the behavior of the FTPs. There were some instances, though, that FTPs failed to report to their shift assignments.
“All of them deserve to be commended because it took several sacrifices, time and money,” he said.
Missions
Oppus sent off yesterday two batches (392 members) of FTPs from Western Visayas. The other day, 94 FTPs, all belonging to Southern Mindanao, also returned home.
They will now start another phase of their training that will include “test missions” and “live targets,” said Deputy Regional Director for Administration Ronald Roderos.
Roderos said the fresh graduates from the Regional Training School are ready to undergo the special counter-insurgency operations unit training (Scout).
FTPs will have to remember everything they learned during the Scout because right after, they will be assigned to the Regional Mobile Group (RMG), where they will serve as “frontliners.”
National Police Commission regulations state that police recruits will have to stay with the RMG for two years.
During the Scout, FTPs will be given test missions, like verifying intelligence information on the presence of armed men in a particular area.
Roderos said they have invited members of the Special Action Forces to train FTPs from Central Visayas. “The possibility of an actual encounter is there,” he said.
Sustain
After the summit and the Sinulog festivities, Comendador wants to maintain the momentum the police gained in reducing crimes during the last quarter of last year because of the tight security measures.
“We will now focus on our anti-criminality campaign to reduce index crimes,” he said.
Comendador told reporters that based on the latest statistics, there was a 30 percent decrease in the crime rate late last year. He attributed the decrease to the presence of the FTP.
Comendador said random checkpoints will be sustained and he will consistently monitor his operatives’ movements.
He is also planning to come up with scorecards that will serve as a monitoring device for all the 11 police stations and special units on their administrative and operation performance.
A scorecard will cover the performance of the police in their campaign against all forms of criminality and will be evaluated at the end of every month.
The police station or the special unit that gets a poor rate will be “a candidate for some sort of action,” he said.
Apart from the anti-criminality campaign, the CCPO has mapped out measures for areas of concern during the elections, as the campaign period has already started.
A gun ban has also been implemented by the police since Jan. 14.
Comendador said that so far, they have not received reports on robbers being used by politicians to fund their candidacies. (MEA/JST/OCP)
