CLOSE to 1,000 police personnel in Cebu City will have a merrier Christmas celebration as the City Government announced that it would resume giving allowances to them.
City Councilor Phillip Zafra said the stipend for members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Central Visayas (PDEA 7) and the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), which cover the months of July to October, is being processed by the City Accounting Office.
The directors will receive P8,000; assistant directors, P6,000; and rank-and-file, P2,500 per month.
Zafra said all police personnel and PDEA agents assigned in Cebu City will receive the allowance, adding that there are no exemptions.
He said the CCPO and the PDEA directors only have to submit a list of names, so the City can start processing.
The City may not be required to provide them with allowances, but the City has the privilege to give them allowances, said Zafra.
He said it is only right to provide them with one as they contribute a lot to the city’s peace and order.
“We can see that they are very instrumental in the development of the city. Without them, the City cannot just secure the peace and stability of our local government unit,” he said.
Zafra and Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, in a resolution which the City Council had approved, will also grant the PDEA and CCPO their allowances from January to June 2019.
When Mayor Edgardo Labella assumed his seat as mayor, the CCPO and PDEA directors requested him to restore their allowances which was stopped by former mayor Tomas Osmeña.
In previous reports, Osmeña had threatened former CCPO director Royina Garma that he would withdraw the allowances of police officers if they failed to solve the strafing attempt against Malubog Barangay Captain Dennis Dabuco, Sudlon 2 Barangay Captain Pricillo Albores and Sinsin Barangay Captain Aurello Lascuña in April this year.
In 2016, Osmeña also put on hold the allowances of all those assigned at the Police Station 6 for failing to curb illegal gambling.
SunStar Cebu tried to get the comment of the former mayor, to no avail.
Meanwhile, the City has purchased 40 long firearms and 20 motorcycles for the CCPO, Garcia said.
He said the allowance is an incentive from the City Government. The police can do whatever they want with it, he said.
With the City’s support for the CCPO, Garcia said they expect police officers to display a “very high” level of performance to ensure the city’s peace and order.
Last July, the mayor promised to provide 200 sacks of rice for the city police. He also promised to help the CCPO build new police stations. (JJL)