MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday suspended the usage of body mass index (BMI) as a requirement for promotion.
Police chief Guillermo Eleazar, in a statement, said the suspension of the implementation of the PNP Memorandum Circular 2020-029 was done in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In approving this, we took into consideration the balance between the workload of all our personnel in this time of pandemic and the need for them to comply with this Memorandum Circular just to be promoted,” he said.
“Nasa panahon tayo ng pandemya kung saan nangangailangan ng malasakit at pang-unawa sa aming mga tauhan, lalo na ang libu-libo naming personnel na naatasang magpatupad ng minimum public health safety protocol 24 oras,” he added.
(We are in the time of pandemic when our troops need understanding, especially the ones who are tasked to enforce minimum public health safety protocols for 24 hours.)
Eleazar said the suspension is just “temporary” and would resume once the situation “normalizes.”
Aside from the BMI requirement, the PNP has also sought to win its battle against obesity through programs like “Chubby Anonymous.”
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