By Rey Anthony Chiu
Philippine Information AgencyLocal police officers are now optimistic that the new directive from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the hiring of more cops could boost their crime prevention and fighting capabilities with the additional manpower coming.
Camp Dagohoy police operations head P/Inspector Vener Santos said at the going ratio of a cop for every 1,100 residents here, crime prevention and police visibility is almost impossible. To him, the new directive could lessen the ration and could mean improved police visibility in the streets to discourage criminal elements.
President Arroyo announced recently that 3,500 new policemen would be hired next year as part of a sustained program to beef up the government’s capability to combat lawlessness, terrorism and maintain peace and order.
The President's new directive effectively increases the hiring rate of new policemen to 3,500 from the annual rate of 3,000 every year and then to go 4,000 annually from 2009 to 2010.
Over this, Pinsp Santo believed that at any rate, Bohol would still get some trickle of the newly recruited force be they going through the attrition program or from the President’s special order.
In Bohol, PSSupt. Edgardo Ingking has urged for more cooperation from police crime-fighting capability status, than sour-graping over the apparent lack of police personnel.
In Bohol, where there is an alarming manpower lack when put in a backdrop of burgeoning population, increasing criminality and decreasing number of foot policemen, discouraging bad elements from hitting the innocent could be complemented by the community, PSSupt Ingking said.
Pisnp. Santos said the regional statistics is even undermanned when the ideal ratio should have been 1 cop for every 500 citizens.
He added that Bohol still has to get at least 250 new police officers to immediately improve its presence.
At present, Bohol only has 1,011 police officers some of them assigned desk jobs that only very few get the chance of pounding the streets and running after criminals.
This is the reason why curbing the recent spate of high profile robberies, hold-ups and the proliferation of drugs and illegal gambling is seemingly impossible, observers have said.
Dipped in this situation, Pssupt. Inking has rallied support from newly elected mayors who may still not know that the cops could not work on barely police funds.
In this situation which has been pervading the country’s police stations, the President also directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to deploy its desk-bound personnel to “pound the streets†to increase police visibility as a deterrent to security threats and lawlessness all over the country.
To get the ball rolling, the President called on all college graduates who are still looking for jobs to try their luck and apply as policemen.
She said that with the number of recruits needed, landing a job in the police force would be cinch.
The President pointed out that the budget needed to hire the additional policemen would be taken from the revenues raised as a result of the strict enforcement of fiscal reforms implemented by the government, notably the Expanded Value Added Tax (E-VAT) Law.
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