Manila cops to undergo fitness tests

Rigorous calisthenics and aerobics await flunkers in tomorrow's waist measurement of all police personnel at the Western Police District (WPD) headquarters on United Nations Avenue in Ermita, Manila.

WPD director Chief Superintendent Avelino Razon Jr. ordered the policemen's physical fitness test following the directive of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Deputy Director General Panfilo Lacson for the police to embark on a six-month physical fitness program designed to weed out police officers and men whose waistlines breach 34 inches.

Tomorrow's tests have already agitated potbellied Manila policemen who have started to "sweat it out" in gyms and reducing salons since Friday in the hope of reducing their waistlines.

Lacson warned, policemen who flunk the series of physical fitness tests will be booted out of service.

The 3,000-strong Manila's Finest Brotherhood Association, Inc (MFBAI) expressed their discomfort with Lacson's order saying such a directive is prejudicial to the worthy performance of so-called pot-bellied cops. "A bulging stomach does not make you a non-performing asset of an organization. There are some who are really big in size due to heredity but are efficient in their jobs," MFBAI president SPO4 Wilson Tibor said.