NPD K-9 wins CSG competition

The Northern Police District-Special Weapons and Tactics team’s K-9 dog Rocky was adjudged champion in Monday’s Philippine National Police Civil Security Group bomb/explosive detection competition at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Chief Inspector Reynante Bastian, NPD-SWAT chief, said that Rocky, a three-year-old black Labrador, excelled from among the 35 canine entries from different PNP units and various K-9 providers that participated in the contest. The PNP-Special Action Force garnered the second and third places in the match, which also coincided with the CSG ’08 anniversary celebration with PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa in attendance and CSG head Chief Superintendent Ireneo Bacolod.

Bacolod personally handed the championship trophy to Rocky’s handler Cerino Lucero, also a K-9 instruction of the SAF.

“K-9 dogs are very important components of the SWAT team especially in detecting bombs or any form of explosives and here at NPD we could rely on Rocky’s expertise,” Chief Inspector Bartolome Tarnate, the K-9 team supervisor, told The STAR.

Among the explosives Rocky discovered during the competition was the C4, a main component in making bombs.

“These K-9 dogs are specially trained to detect not only explosives but also drugs and they are very dependable, but that also depends on their coach’s skills in guiding them,” Tarnate said.

Police Community Relations chief Director Leopoldo Bataoil, who, during his term as NPD director, encouraged Tarnate to train K-9 dogs for the use of the NPD and other police units, also congratulated Tarnate and urged him to continue “the good job.”  

Apart from Rocky, Tarnate, with the support of NPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Tango, is maintaining and training at least six more canines and two of them, Hunter and Scooper, are now “active in the field.”

Hunter remains at the NPD headquarters with Rocky while Scooper is now being utilized by the PNP-Region I in their operations. – Pete Laude