Metro mayors to control police assigned to them

Two days ago, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approved the Metro Manila Mayor’s proposal to return the administrative control of policemen who are assigned in their respective municipalities. This will undoubtedly improve the performance of the national police assigned in Metro Manila, but it is still not the answer to the problem. How can policemen in Manila or Makati be efficient when they are not from these cities? Today, if you ask a policeman where a street is, he cannot even tell you. His answer will be, "I don’t know. I’m not from here."

We don’t know any country in the world that has a national police force. In all countries, policemen are recruited and trained by their respective municipalities. It is only here that the police force is centralized.

The truth is that the present police force is the old Philippine Constabulary that was organized to fight local rebels. The army was established to fight foreign aggression. The people were led to believe that the constabulary was disbanded. The truth is that it was the municipal policemen that were abolished. Our army was transformed into the old constabulary. That is why it is they who are fighting the rebels.

As we said, it is not enough that Philippine national policemen be placed under the jurisdiction of the Metro Manila Mayors. What about Cebu and other major cities in the country? What the authorities should do is to go back to the old system when policemen were under their respective municipalities. Under that system, policemen served in the municipality where they were from.

Under the present centralized system, there are no neighborhood policemen. The neighborhood policeman used to be a familiar figure in all communities. They knew the individual residents and people knew them by name.

Today, there is very little difference between a soldier and a policeman. They are both military organizations. The trainings for soldiers and policemen are two entirely different things. Soldiers are trained for combat. Policemen are trained to control traffic and insure that municipal ordinances are enforced and followed.

We urge the authorities to do what the rest of the world is doing: put policemen under the total jurisdiction of the municipalities.