Aquino laments shortage of policemen

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III has admitted the need to beef up the police force amid the recent high-profile killings.

“Noong panahon ng EDSA, ang kapulisan at kasundaluhan [ay] 250,000. Ang binabantayang Pilipino, 50 million (noon). Ngayon, eksakto tayong 250,000 pa rin na pulis at sundalo, ang binabantayan, 98 million. Ngayon, kaya ba ng pulis?” he told reporters during his state visit to Japan on Tuesday.

(During the time of the EDSA people power, our police force and military were 250,000 in total. They were looking after 50 million Filipinos. Now, we still have 250,000 policemen and soldiers who are responsible for 98 million Filipinos. Do you think the police could manage that?)

In the meantime, he said the government was now replacing 15,000 policemen working in the PNP offices with civilian employees.

“Yung pulis mismo na gumagawa ng mga clerical functions sa administrative, ibinabalik na natin sa kalsada para madagdagan ‘yung warm bodies,” he said.

(Policemen who have clerical functions are being returned to the field to increase the number of warm bodies.)

In the transcript made available to Palace reporters, Aquino pointed out that regardless of the shortage, the police are still able to deliver by solving more crimes.

‘Yung sensational na crimes, ‘di ba, at ‘yung maski hindi sensational, talagang maraming naso-solve (There are a lot of sensational crimes, even those that are not, being solved),” he said, adding that solved meant there was a suspect, an eyewitness and evidence through forensics that will help build a solid case.

An example he gave was the arrest of Khair Mundos, an Abu Sayyaf leader with al-Qaida links who was being hunted down for more than a decade.

Aquino also denied that the crime rate was increasing. He said the police leadership had discovered that there were precincts tampering crime statistics to make it look as if they were doing a good job.

He said they do not tolerate such acts and that the Philippine National Police (PNP) is focused on results.

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