PNP says 1:500 police-people ratio hard to meet

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police said Thursday that it would not be possible to achieve Interior Secretary Mar Roxas’ proposed 1:500 ratio of cops per person due to budget constraints.

However, it said that the recruitment for police officers wouldn’t be the center of its attention, rather, the quality of each officer.

Given the ratio and the present number of police officers, PNP chief, Deputy Director General Alan Purisima, said the organization will need 60,000 more policemen.

But considering the 3,000 maximum recruitment of policemen per year, Purisima said it would take 20 more years to achieve the given ratio. And by that time, the older batch of 60,000 policemen has already bowed out of service.

Meanwhile, he also said he is looking into discontinuing the one cop per village imposed by then PNP chief, Director General Nicanor Bartolome due to several issues, including lack of police officers.

“For example in Metro Manila, there are 80 plus barangays [villages] mauubos yung pulis natin (we cannot cope with that). We have to rationalize the deployment and then we have to identify the job. Ano bang gagawin ng pulis sa barangay? (What would each cop do in the village?) That was not clear [for] Metro Manila. This time, we will make it clear,” Purisima said.

The PNP chief said he is looking into assigning patrol officers to look over different areas each night, but added that areas of concern, especially those that are big, will be assigned with more officers to do patrol duties every day.

“ . . . and it should be managed properly because we need more people to patrol the streets. So, it’s safe padin. The policemen can act, they are felt and they are experienced,” he said.

Nonetheless, Purisima said Roxas is currently working on a regional recruitment plan for the PNP.