Monday, April 28, 2008 PNP, Indonesian police to hold more meetings
A TOP police official said the Philippine National Police (PNP) is conducting more meetings and trainings with its Indonesian counterpart to enhance regional inter-agency cooperation against transnational crime and terrorism.
In the just-concluded Phil-Indo Police Joint Committee Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the PNP and Indonesian National Police (INP) panels adopted a schedule of activities that both parties will undertake in the remaining months of 2008 until the opening months of 2009.
Joint activities lined up for this year include the Phil-Indo Police Sub-Committee Meeting on Operations in September in Indonesia, and Phil-Indo Police Workshop Command Post Exercise in November.
Deputy Director General Emmanuel Carta, deputy chief for operation of the PNP, said both panels have agreed to hold quarterly Joint Committee Meetings to be hosted alternately by the PNP and INP.
The next Joint Committee quarterly meeting will be held in Cebu City in July.
Carta was head of the 18-man PNP delegation during the Joint Committee Meeting held in Bali, Indonesia last April 20-23.
In his address before the Joint Committee, Carta hoped that the meeting "will bring our two police forces closer to our respective goals of a safe and secure country for our respective nations."
During the Bali meeting, both panels worked out mutually acceptable activity guidelines in undertaking future Joint Committee Meetings and training exercises similar to the joint PNP-INP Trainers Training held in Zamboanga City in November 2007.
In 2005, the PNP and INP forged a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Preventing and Combating Transnational Crimes.
Since the 2005 PNP-INP accord, both police forces have formulated standard procedures in joint police operations, joint training on cooperation, procedure in the conduct of hot pursuit operation along territorial waters, and guidelines in the handover of criminal suspects.
The PNP is cooperating with Indonesian counterparts in developing a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) databank of known members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI) by assisting Indonesian police in acquiring DNA profiles of JI members known to be operating in some areas in the Philippines. (VR/Sunnex)
