Resolution urging DILG, police to step up village peacekeepers passed

TACLOBAN CITY – The Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) passed a resolution urging the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Philippine National Police (PNP) to step up the advocacy of Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT) among local government officials.

During the RPOC meeting last week, Northern Samar Governor Paul Daza, the council’s chief, said that Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) should tackle community-based police system in their meetings and map out strategies on how to advocate the program.

“We will let the PPOCs decide how to bring the program to the municipal and barangay level,” Daza said during the meeting.

Launched in 2009, BPAT aims to organize and mobilize various sectors of the community in support of the maintenance of peace and order and safety.

Other basic functions include conducting crisis management, disaster mitigation, and search, rescue, and relief operations within the community; strengthen and support the Barangay Justice System (Lupong Tagapamayapa); conduct crime prevention and deterrence measures to protect the vulnerable sectors of the community.

“Since this is a volunteer basis and no funding support from DILG and PNP, it’s up to the LGUs that it’s good to do and finance the training. In Northern Samar, only two towns are implementing it because of funding constraint,” Daza added.

In a presentation, Police Officer 3 Zenda Sudio, assistant public information officer of the police community relations, said the BPAT will converge all existing programs to strengthen forces against criminality.

“The barangay tanod was just limited to crime prevention but BPAT is also tasked to disaster response and environmental protection,” she added.

Sudio added that while peacekeeping is the basic function of the police there’s still a need to share the responsibility to community members since enhance police visibility may not work in all situations.

The PNP admitted that only few local government units are carrying out this initiative despite series of advocacies done by the police. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)