‘PNP 2016 budget for new guns, chopper repairs, CCTVs, automated crime database’

MANILA, Philippines — With its budget boosted for 2016, the Philippine National Police (PNP) hopes to get started with its modernization plans—which includes procuring new guns, air assets, implementing a nationwide automated crime reporting system, and setting up security-camera command centers.

Chief Supt. Joel Victor Canapi, Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy director for comptrollership, confirmed in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the PNP’s P88.1-billion proposed budget was retained in the 2016 national budget signed by President Aquino on Tuesday. “Nothing was vetoed,” Canapi said.

In a recent Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) press forum, the PNP Directorate for Comptrollership revealed that the 2016 budget for the PNP has increased by more than P17 billion from the 2015 budget of P70.76 billion.

Detailing expenditure plans for next year at the FOCAP forum, PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez Jr. detailed plans to buy “around 35,000 high-powered rifles, P820 million worth of radio equipment, and P800 million worth of short firearms for personnel recruited after 2012.”

Marquez added: “We have been directed by some senators to procure air assets. So, for 2016, we’ll be seeing the repair of our two helicopters for rapid deployment during calamities, emergencies and high-profile violent attacks.”

Marquez also expressed plans to put up security-camera command centers in all police districts and stations in Metro Manila “so we could monitor the situation on the ground better, direct our forces better.”

“We will have coordination with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and link with information-technology systems of local government units. We’ll be seeing more closed-circuit television cameras, especially in crime-prone areas,” Marquez said.

Marquez also placed in priority the “nationalizing” of an automated crime report system, in which crime reports from police stations would immediately and automatically be transmitted to a central database.

“In terms of technology, we would like to announce that we now have the [Geographic Information Systems] crime-mapping in the National Capital Region. The same initiative is being done in Regions 3 and 4A. Hopefully, the funding for 2016 will be approved so that the nationalization of the automated crime reporting system would take place. That’s the only way you can get the honest-to-goodness crime numbers. For as long as accounting is manual, it’s always susceptible to shaving,” Marquez said.

“Those are the things we think are important to make sure that suitable crime strategies are in place. It is important that we are able to capture the crime figures from the ground and analyze them properly,” Marquez said.

The “nationalization” of the automated crime report system is expected to start with Metro Manila’s neighboring provinces.

Marquez also expressed plans to put a police emergency hotline, and have around 200 police stations nationwide built next year. According to the PNP Directorate for Comptrollership, there is an allotment of P1.5 billion for the construction, on top of the annual budget for the PNP’s Capability Enhancement Program.  SFM