PNP, DFA in talks to grant ‘non-resident status’ for PH police attaches in UAE

Philippine National Police chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., head of the Philippine National Police (PNP), announced that the PNP is in talks with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to seek non-residency status for the PNP’s police attachés in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Earlier, Azurin mentioned that the PNP is looking to station a permanent police attache in the Middle Eastern country to better serve the nearly 700,000 Filipinos working abroad.

READ: PH police attache eyed for Pinoys in UAE 

“The reason kung bakit natin pinag-iisipan na magkaroon ng permanent [police attaché] sa UAE kasi iyong police attaché natin sa Saudi, kapag pupunta doon [sa iba], kailangan pa niyang mag-apply ng visa kasi it’s another part,” the PNP chief said in a press briefing on Monday.

(We’re thinking of having a permanent police attaché in UAE since the one we have in Saudi would need to apply for a separate visa when they visit other areas.)

He further noted that it would be “very expensive” for the PNP to have a separate police attaché stationed in countries like Germany, Italy and France, among others.

“It entails a big budget kapag nag-po-post tayo doon so kung pwede, sana bigyan na lang ng non-resident [status] iyong ating mga police attaché para they can cover as much iyong mga Filipino community sa ibang bansa,” Azurin added.

(It also entails a big budget when we post attachés there, so if we could just give our police a non-resident status, they can cover as much of the Filipino community in other countries.)

According to Azurin, the PNP has police attachés in New York, San Francisco, Pakistan, Saudi, Indonesia, Malaysia and China, with a notable convergence of Filipinos.

But more than gathering information about transnational crimes, police attachés are present in countries to provide service to the Filipino community, he added.

“Ang kailangan natin dito is more on touching base with the Filipino community to ease kung ano man ang mga nagiging problema nila roon. Para nang sa ganoon, nararamdaman nila iyong gobyerno, as well as iyong police, as support to their concern,” Azurin said.

(What we need here is more touching base with the Filipino community to ease whatever their problems are. With this, they’ll feel the support of the government, as well as the police, in their concern.) – Kimberly D. Albaño, INQUIRER.net intern

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