Lady cops train in Krav Maga

‘REAL-LIFE SCENARIO’ Dindo De Jesus (in black) teaches female NCRPO trainees how to subdue and handcuff an arrested person the Krav Maga way. NCRPO PHOTO

DO NOT mess with these ladies.

Around 100 policewomen under the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) recently underwent training in Krav Maga, which introduced them to a self-defense system originally developed for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

“In celebration of women’s month, we are giving them a treat to refresh their knowledge of self-defense and learn more advanced techniques,” NCRPO chief Director Joel Pagdilao said in a statement Wednesday. The one-day training program was conducted Monday at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Krav Maga was developed by Hungarian-Jewish martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld, who used his boxing and wrestling skills to help defend his Jewish neighborhood against racist gangs in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, in the late 1930s. In the late 1940s, he went to the newly founded state of Israel, where he taught and refined the method as a chief instructor in the IDF.

Pagdilao said the policewomen’s training was apart from the other self-defense techniques taught under their Public Safety Basic Recruit Course and special courses in counterinsurgency operations.

An “advanced” technique like Krav Maga “will further empower an NCRPO policewoman to confidently defend and protect the public against criminality,” he said. “We salute our policewomen in their commitment and determination in performing police duties aside from being mothers, wives, daughters or sisters in their family.”

The NCRPO spokesperson, Chief Insp. Kimberly Molitas, said the 100 policewomen were the first batch of NCRPO members to receive such training.

Dindo De Jesus, regional director for Asia of the International Krav Maga Federation, said the system develops “alertness and presence of mind” and may be “very useful in real-life self-defense scenarios especially in performing police duties, like arresting criminals.”

“Krav Maga has a philosophy that emphasizes threat neutralization, simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers, and aggression,” said De Jesus, who conducted the training at Bagong Diwa. Kristine Felisse Mangunay