/ stevenwarran's Library/ Notes/ July 23, 2001, The Philippine Star, GMA Gives PNP P1 Billion for Modernization, by Paolo Romero,
July 23, 2001, The Philippine Star, GMA Gives PNP P1 Billion for Modernization, by Paolo Romero,
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July 23, 2001, The Philippine Star, GMA Gives PNP P1 Billion for Modernization, by Paolo Romero,
Manila, July 23, 2001 - (STAR Paolo Romero) President Arroyo has released an initial P1 billion for the modernization of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to raise the salaries of policemen and strengthen professionalism in the police service.
The Chief Executive’s action came on the heels of the government’s renewed campaign against major crime syndicates in Metro Manila and Mindanao.
In a radio interview over the weekend, Mrs. Arroyo said she has ordered PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza to use a portion of the money to finance the optional retirement of policemen who could not meet professional requirements.
"Thank God for my good budget secretary (Emilia Boncodin)," she said. "She was able to find P1 billion. Even with the P145-billion ceiling, she was able to find P1 billion for the modernization of the PNP."
Under the PNP modernization program, policemen should be college graduates, she added.
Mrs. Arroyo said the allocation came on top of the release of the supplementary budget to fund the salary increase of the nation’s 110,000 policemen.
"So there would be no reason for kotong (mulcting) cops," she said.
Mrs. Arroyo said part of the P1 billion must be used to professionalize the PNP through education and training and the retirement of "old" policemen.
"Many of our policemen have not finished college and many of them are already old," she said. "They (policemen) told me it’s hard for them to go back to school, so they should retire if there is retirement fund."
Mrs. Arroyo said she has ordered Mendoza to screen policemen to determine who should be retained or retired to allow rookies to join the police force.
"General Mendoza can manage the P1 billion so we can get new blood because if those enforcing the law are professionals, we can rely on them more," she said.
Mrs. Arroyo said she has ordered the upgrading of the curriculum and facilities of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) in Tanza, Cavite.
Policemen nationwide belong to the PNP and are administratively part of it, making them employees of the national government, but mayors have some control over policemen assigned to their cities or municipalities.
Being PNP members, they receive their salaries and other emoluments from funds allocated for the agency, and they can be assigned from one city or municipality to another, or from Metro Manila to Tawi-Tawi.
Most young policemen, especially officers, are graduates of the PNPA in accordance with the PNP Act, but many senior policemen have not graduated from college.
These policemen, who entered the service before President Ferdinand Marcos integrated local police forces with the Constabulary in the early 1970s, have remained in the service without getting a degree and they are a few years short of retirement.
The PNP Act, which Congress passed in the early 1990s, had allowed them to continue serving as policemen on condition that they fulfill the law’s requirement for them to complete college after a certain period.
However, many of these senior policemen have remained without any college diploma almost 10 years after the passage of the PNP Act.
The PNP’s forerunner was the Philippine Constabulary–Integrated National Police (PC-INP), which Marcos had set up following martial law to enable him to have control over local police.
Before the PC-INP, local police forces were under the administrative control of city or municipal mayors, and policemen were recruited by local governments based on the 1966 Police Reform Act.
As such, policemen were paid depending on the salary standards of the city or municipality where they are assigned, and those assigned in Manila received a salary much higher pay than those in the provinces.
Policemen could not also be transferred from one city or municipality to another, or from Luzon to the Visayas or Mindanao, as they are employees of the local government where they are assigned, in accordance with the city’s charter of the law creating the municipality.
After the ouster of Marcos in February 1986, the administration of President Corazon Aquino did not dissolve the PC-INP and continued with the practice of depriving city and municipal mayors of administrative control over local police forces.
When the PNP Act was passed, the PC-INP, which was then a branch of the Armed Forces, was separated and placed under the National Police Commission, but local policemen were not given back their former status as local government employees.
Before martial law, local police were under cities and municipalities, while the Constabulary was a paramilitary force under the Department of National Defense as the fourth branch of the Armed Forces.
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