Manila Bulletin – Sunday, December 12
MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Raul Bacalzo has admitted that the 132,000-strong police force is still lacking with firearms needed in the conduct of law enforcement operations throughout the country. Bacalzo revealed that 30 percent of the policemen and policewomen are not issued with the standard short firearms or sidearms. What’s worse, Bacalzo said, 50 percent of the police force have no M16 rifles. He acknowledged that these long firearms are needed by policemen especially in areas where there are rebels and organized crime groups. Ideally, a police officer in the Philippines should have both the short and long firearms for law enforcement operations and implementation of security measures, according to local police experts.
To address the issue, Bacalzo said the PNP is authorizing the police to use their personal firearms as long as these are registered. ”We allow them to use their personal firearms as long as they are licensed. This is what we are doing in the PNP to solve the problem,” said Bacalzo. With the strategy they are adopting, Bacalzo said, all policemen and policewomen are already armed. ”We have 50 percent fill-up on long firearms and we have 70 percent fill up on short firearms. What we do is that we take these firearms collectively on a one-on-one basis,” said Bacalzo, ”Meaning, we are trying our best to issue one firearm, either long or short, depending on your assignment to each policemen so that each policemen, 132,000 of them, will ideally one issued firearms either short or long… So we have almost 100 percent on one-on-one basis.” PNP elite forces and those engaged in the fight against rebels and organized crime groups are prioritized when it comes to the issuance of long firearms while those in police stations normally get the short firearms, said the police chief.
Bakit? san na po ba ang budget dito? sobrang laki ng tax binabayaran namin as individual employee. almost 30% of our salary per month. there are millions of good tax payers in the country.
Our taxpayers money goes primarily to the pockets of our corrupt government officials and generals. Whatever is left over, which is not much, goes to the regular needs of government, including police equipment.
Kung wala silang budget for the firearms and said that they allow their Police Officers to use their personal FA then how can they give our Police Officers good training on firearms (marksmanship/safety). Where can they supply ammo for these Police Officers for practice. There are possibilities that our Police personnel will use their own ammo for practice so they are going to get the budget from their own pocket? Kawawa naman ang mga pulis natin. Ito ba ay isang angulo na nangyayari ang mga kutong na pulis? ? ? ?
Lack of training ammo is also a problem now for the NBI. Before, when we operated with NBI on private commercial cases, we gave a little cash “for the boys.” Today, instead of money, they ask for ammo. 🙂