Friday, September 21, 2007 Editorial: Cops without guns
THE Philippine National Police (PNP) is reportedly asking for a budget of P883 million for 2008, or 2.23 percent higher than in the 2007 PNP budget.
The additional outlay is earmarked for the hiring of 3,500 new policemen in 2008, which will improve the police-to-population ratio from 1:705 to 1:700. Which is not much of an improvement any way one looks at it. The ideal ratio is 1:500. To reach it will require the hiring of 15,000 new policemen in the next five years (up to year 2010) at the rate of 3,000 per year.
But something's wrong somewhere. According to the report, the PNP budget will cover the purchase of an additional 5,000 guns. Where will the other 10,000 new cops get their guns? Should the correct ratio of policeman-to-gun not be 1:1? For the truth of the matter is that not all recent police graduates have been issued guns.
Such a situation has forced the gun-less cops to purchase their own, which almost always means that those who cannot afford it will have to borrow money, most probably from loan sharks at that. Or borrow a gun from a colleague who is off duty. A brand new pistol may cost P25 thousand, or much less if it is one of those Danao-made ones (paltik) from Cebu, which--though tolerated--is illegal per se. It is an anomaly that ought to be addressed at once. Here in Davao City there are reportedly many policemen who do not own guns. The problem is most likely replicated in many other cities for all we know.
And to think that criminal syndicates, like kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) gangs, bank robbers and carnappers, to name a few, are sometimes better armed than the policemen who are out to get them. At least, in the case of armed robbers, the weapon ratio is 1:1 or even 1:2. It's unfair to our men in uniform to expect them to go on their beat armed only with a pair of handcuffs and a prayer for deliverance from the bad guys.
