Velasco lauds livelihood project for policemen

Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco lauded yesterday the Department of Agriculture (DA) for continuing the livelihood project for policemen, which is new being implemented nationwide.

Velasco was the head of the Philippine National Police (PNP) comptrollership when he initiated the project after finding out that 31.9 percent of policemen are living below the poverty line and 32.7 percent are within or a just a little over the poverty line.

"I’m glad that the livelihood project that we have started during my stint as director of comptrollership is being continued by the DA as this is really part of the Arroyo administration’s thrust of eradicating graft and corruption. By providing policemen with additional earnings, we encourage them to be honest," said Velasco.

The CAMP-GMA livelihood assistance is a joint undertaking of the DA and the PNP to augment the income of PNP personnel and their dependents and enhance their capacity to engage in enterprises that will help them attain food security in the household.

The program teaches cops to raise cropsas they set aside their guns momentarily and convert their camps into modern farms.

The PNP livelihood project was a takeoff from a similar joint undertaking between the DA and the Department of National Defense (DND) initiated by former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor and former PNP chief and now Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza for military personnel.

At least seven model camps have initially been identified as target areas for this livelihood program for cops. These include Camp Narciso Ramos in Tayug, Pangasinan and Camp Pendatum in Parang, Maguindanao.

Camp Pendatum is the regional police headquarters of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and home of 1,500 police officers and their dependents while Camp Narcisco Ramos is home of the 107 Provincial Mobile Group (PMG).

Velasco noted that the PNP livelihood program for the country’s police force is now being implemented nationwide.

Aside from the CAMP-GMA, some 200 police dependents were also named initial beneficiaries of a livelihood project in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig after a memorandum of agreement was signed with four of the country’s biggest business groups.

Meanwhile, Velasco said that livelihood program for families of Metro Manila cops has been expanded to poultry and livestock raising and crop planting, all being provided by DA.

"The DA has recent donated poultry and livestock products as well as seedlings," Velasco said.