670 policemen nationwide undergo retraining on values

MANILA, Philippines - More than 670 policemen nationwide are to undergo a weeklong retraining on values and Philippine National Police chief Director General Raul Bacalzo will visit them in their camps to remind them of their sworn duty to serve the people.

During the past week, at least 14 policemen were implicated in rape and kidnapping, prompting police officials to come up with programs to redeem the police image.

PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said the retraining was part of efforts to improve the attitude and image of policemen.

However, not all policemen who would undergo training were abusive, he added.

Cruz said the retraining would only serve as refresher course for some of the policemen, he added.

Cruz said among the first batch of policemen to undergo training are 57 members of the Talavera police station in Nueva Ecija, 60 members of the Cainta police and 42 policemen from Eastwood police station in Quezon City.

“Members of the Eastwood police station will be undergoing retraining as they were members of a model police station,” he said.

Cruz said the Talavera policemen were made to undergo retraining after the deputy chief shot dead the police chief on New Year’s Day.

Forty policemen from Maguindanao will also undergo training starting today until Jan. 16, he added.

Those who would undergo training include 30 policemen from San Fernando police in La Union, 88 from Cauyan City in Isabela, 36 from Mindoro Oriental, 33 from Albay, 30 from Bacolod, 21 from Negros Oriental, 17 from Leyte, 28 from Zamboanga, 21 from Bukidnon, 50 from Davao City, 35 from Cotabato and 36 from Surigao del Sur, Cruz said.

Policemen in Bacacay will undergo training starting Jan. 10 in compliance to a directive of PNP chief Bacalzo.

Bicol police spokesman Pelagio Samson Jr. said the training program started at Camp General Simeon Ola with Senior Superintendent Victor Deona, deputy regional director as guest speaker.

All Bacacay policemen headed by chief of police Rafael Apin will undergo a weeklong classroom instruction and practical exercises to include investigation, proper-first responders actions and procedures, crime scene preservation and management, case buildup, proper use of firearms, arrest and handcuffing techniques and good manners and right conduct, he added.

Samson said policemen from the Regional Public Safety Battalion and Albay Public Safety Company will temporarily take over the Bacacay police station until the training program is completed.

The training course will be administered by the Regional Special Training Unit 5 under the supervision of the Regional Personnel and Human Resource Management Division, he added.

Chief Superintendent Alan La Madrid Purisima, Central Luzon police director, said the seven-day retraining course of Talavera policemen will start today.

An opening ceremony was held yesterday at the Clark Freeport with Director Danilo Querubin Abarsoza, director of the Human Resource Doctrine and Development as the guest speaker.

Abarsoza represented Bacalzo who did not make it to the ceremony due to several appointments.

Purisima said the retraining is part of the training program for city and municipal police stations.

The objective of the retraining program is to further enhance the knowledge of policemen in the various aspects of police work, he added.

The Talavera police force will be the first batch to undergo a retraining program, with the rest of police stations in Central Luzon to follow, he added.

Forty-six non-commissioned police officers of Talavera and their officer-in-charge Superintendent Wilfredo Paulo are the first to undergo “Basic Station Training Course.”

At least 84 PNCO from National Capitol Region Office will also undergo basic training, according to Senior Superintendent Melchor Reyes, regional deputy for Human Resource Doctrine and Development Division.

At the House of Representatives lawmakers expressed disappointment yesterday over the “lackluster” performance of Bacalzo.

Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara and Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles made public their dismay in the wake of a string of recent crimes involving policemen.

“He should shape up or ship out,” Nograles, an assistant majority leader in the House, said.

Angara, who chairs the higher education committee, said Bacalzo “should take serious action on the allegations of police brutality and alleged involvement of policemen in heinous crimes such as the rape incident in Manila and the attempted kidnapping involving Quezon City policemen.”

He said there is also a rise in petty crimes, “which greatly affect the country’s reputation as a tourist and investment destination.”        

“Peace and order is a prerequisite if we want more tourists to visit the country. I have a bill to improve benefits for our policemen, but the PNP must exert efforts to cleanse its ranks and make our people feel safe inside and outside their homes,” he said.

Nograles said when the gun ban was still in effect in October last year, less than a month after Bacalzo was appointed as PNP chief, policemen manning a checkpoint arrested two men riding a motorcycle in Davao City for carrying firearms.

It turned out after a ballistic examination that the caliber 45 and the 9mm pistols seized from the suspects were the same firearms used in at least eight summary executions in Davao City alone, he said.

Police charged the suspects only with illegal possession of firearms instead of investigating them further for possible involvement in serial murders, he said.

“They obviously bungled a very rare opportunity to break wide open the long unsolved serial executions in Davao City and worse, it seems the PNP chief is either uninformed about the case or was simply uninterested in doing his job properly,” Nograles added.

He also scored Bacalzo’s failure to make good with his declaration that he would not hesitate to punish police officials who cannot stop jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling in their respective areas of responsibility.

“I don’t know if he knows or he is pretending to be ignorant about it that jueteng is back with impunity in many provinces and cities nationwide including Metro Manila because I have yet to hear any regional, provincial or city police director who was relieved because of failure to stop jueteng. His supposed campaign against illegal gambling is all press release,” he said. 

He said President Aquino should appoint a new PNP chief if Bacalzo does not improve his and his organization’s performance. – With Celso Amo, Ric Sapnu, Jess Diaz