For lack of manpower, police look to civilian volunteers – PNP chief

OZAMIZ CITY, Philippines – Lack of manpower in addressing the peace and order problem has forced the Philippine National Police to organize the community-based Barangay Peace Keeping Action Team, according to the chief of the Philippine National Police.

“The PNP needs about 50,000 additional men to make it efficient in curbing criminality but the government could not afford it,” PNP Director General Raul Bacalzo told a recent gathering of civilian police volunteers here.

Bacalzo said that without additional policemen, which also means a bigger budget, the police will continue to be inefficient against crime.

For the year, the PNP has a total budget of about P69.3 billion, up by P20 billion from last year’s.

To address the problem of lack of policemen, Bacalzo said, the PNP has decided to tap volunteers from the community to act as the police’s eyes and ears.

“The government would be helpless in curbing criminality without the help of community volunteers,” he told the police volunteers.

To drive home his point, Bacalzo said that if the entire PNP force were to be evenly deployed throughout the nation, each police station would have only about eight policemen. This, he said, was not enough to maintain peace and order.

Misamis Occidental Governor Herminia Ramiro said he hoped that with the BPAT, crimes such as robbery would be minimized.

A series of robberies in the province and in this city has prompted Mayor Nova Princess Echaves to call for the creation of a police Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team.

Bacalzo said the creation of special police teams was not necessary as long as the community volunteers were vigilant and worked side by side with the police.