More lawyers needed to aid cops in court

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is in need of 84 more lawyers to help assist police operatives in convicting suspected criminals arrested during operations.

Chief Superintendent Marcelo Ele Jr., director of the PNP-Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM), said lawyers can become members of the PNP through lateral entry.

"We are recruiting 84 more lawyers to help our operatives in ensuring the conviction of arrested criminals. At the same, lawyers can also defend policemen, who are being harassed by suspects through counter charges in court," Ele said.

Once their lateral entries are approved, Ele said, lawyers will have the rank of senior inspector or captain with salary grade of not less than P20,000.

The DIDM chief noted that at present there are only two lawyers in each province nationwide. This, he said, is obviously not sufficient to handle the legal concerns of each police officer.

Ele said the command has sponsored programs intended to assist policemen in legal procedures, education and training to prevent lapses that usually result in dismissals in court.

He earlier noted that the PNP needs almost 400,000 more policemen to be able to effectively guard and protect 84 million Filipinos from lawless elements 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With the present set-up, Ele noted, a policeman guards almost 3,000 persons on three eight-hour shifts, which is six times higher than the ideal ratio of 1:500 for every eight-hour shift.

"If we are to follow the ideal ratio of police and citizens, the 115,000 PNP force is 390,440 short of the ideal number of 505,440 officers nationwide.

In the US, Ele noted, the ideal ratio is placed at one policeman for every 300 citizens.

The rise of crime incidents has usually been attributed to the inadequate number of policemen to protect and guard civilians.