MANILA, Philippines — The proposed increase in the number of women police officers will help boost the law enforcement capabilities of various units, particularly the Women’s and Children’s Protection Desk, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Friday.
“The measure will allow the PNP to achieve the ideal situation wherein female officers shall have exclusive supervision over women and children brought to police stations for custodial investigation,” PNP spokesperson Sr.Supt. Bernard Banac said in a statement.
Should House Bill 8689 be eventually enacted into law, the 21-year-old PNP Reform Law will be amended, increasing the percentage of female recruits to 20 percent from the present 10 percent.
The House committee has approved the bill, primarily authored by Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel on public safety on Thursday.
PNP’s Public Information Office (PNP-PIO) said that the police force is authorized to recruit 10,000 officers with a rank of PO1 rank annually.
READ:House panel OKs doubling new female cops to 20% of recruits
At present, the PNP-PIO said that the only 16.6 percent of PNP’s personnel are females, while the 83.4 percent of the 180,767 strong uniformed personnel are males.
In the PNP Officer Corps, 14 percent of commissioned officers are women.
“As far as the recruitment and selection process is concerned, the PNP is 100% compliant to the requirements of law in terms of gender equality and empowerment of women,” Banac said.
“Although the PNP remains a male-dominated organization, women are continuously taking a permanent foothold in the policing landscape.”
Banac added that the division specifically created for female police officers and officials has been deactivated.
“The Women Police Service (WPS), traditionally delegated to auxiliary functions, has been deactivated and its women members have been integrated into the regular force alongside their male counterparts,” said Banac. /gsg