THE Police Regional Office (PRO)-Cordillera will strictly implement the monitoring of the body mass index (BMI) of all its 6,000 strong police personnel.
The BMI, said the PRO, will now be strictly used as a basis before a police recruit is allowed to be hired as a member of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
In the weekly "Pulis Mo-Kaibigan Mo" radio program of dzEQ Radio Pilipinas Baguio, Police Colonel Glenn Lonogan, chief of the Regional Learning Doctrine Division of PRO-Cordillera, said aside from the recruitment process, the BMI monitoring will also have an effect to Police personnel seeking promotion in the organization.
"All police personnel of Procor (PRO-Cordillera) will be subjected to the strict monitoring of the BMI. In fact, last November 21, 2019, no less than Police Major General Amador Corpus, the director of Directorate for Human Resource and Doctrine who graced the 18-day Chief Of Police Qualification Course (COPQC) for 50 police participants coming from the Region 2 and the Cordillera at Procor, reminded them that this will be a basis for them to qualify as chiefs of police and for a higher position in the organization," Lonogan said.
The BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women, according to local the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Using the metric system, it is computed via dividing a person's weight expressed in kilogram, by a person's height in meters squared (or multiplying the height by itself), or BMI= kg/m².
If a person's weight for instance is 60 kilograms and the height is 1.65 meters (five feet and five inches), the BMI is 22.06, which is classified as in a normal weight category.
According to experts, a BMI less than 18.5 is considered underweight, while those between 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal, while a BMI between 25-29.9 is considered overweight, while those who has more than 30 BMI are considered obese.
"BMI requirement is part of the physical fitness program of the PNP in an effort to professionalize the organization and attain respect of the people they serve," Lonogan said.