‘PNPA is fried chicken; PMA is crispy pata’
It’s one greasy proposition.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday defended its decision to consider once again letting graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) join the police force, saying the training provided by the police academy “may not be enough.”
Senior Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP spokesman, compared graduates of the PNP Academy (PNPA) and the PMA to “fried chicken” and “crispy pata.”
“We should define the PMA as a leadership school (that) develops leaders. The PNP would like to avail itself of the leaders being produced by the PMA,” said Sindac at a news briefing in Camp Crame.
“The PNPA is also a leadership school but maybe it might not be enough. We want to have a variety of (sources for officers)… so it will not be all just fried chicken. We will also have crispy pata,” he said, referring to the popular Filipino deep-fried pork leg dish.
Parrying insinuations the proposal was really intended to let PMA graduates continue their hold on the leadership of the PNP, Sindac said the move would benefit the 148,000-strong police force.
He said the proposal made by the PMA Alumni Association Inc. (PMAAAI) had prompted the PNP Directorate for Human Resource and Doctrine Development to create a technical working group to study the reentry of PMA graduates into the PNP.
Sindac, however, said the contents of the letter of PMA Cebu Squad Inc. legal counsel Rameses Victorious Villagonzalo to PNP Director General Alan Purisima and Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista “do not necessarily reflect” the position of the PMAAAI.
In the letter dated Feb. 7, Villagonzalo sought the help of Purisima and Bautista, both members of PMA Class of 1981, in endorsing the PMAAAI’s proposal to President Aquino.
He also submitted a draft executive order “that allows [a] graduate exchange [between the] PMA and PNPA.”
“Its intention is to keep the PMA breed in control—both of the AFP and especially the PNP which has a fading number of cavaliers,” Villagonzalo had said.
Sindac, who belongs to PMA Class of 1984, said that allowing PMA graduates to join the PNP could be tricky, noting that the Local Government Code of 1990 barred alumni of the military school from entering law enforcement.
“As a graduate of the PMA, I must admit that the education, formation and training at the PMA are different. It’s the same thing with graduates of UP (University of the Philippines),” he said.—Marlon Ramos
