PNP aims to capture up to 200 wanted persons per month

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police (PNP) has announced an ambitious project to capture between 150 and 200 wanted persons every month in a bid to reduce criminality especially by recidivist offenders.

PNP Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome said the PNP would set an initial target of 100 to 150 suspects with arrest warrants every month for each provincial police station and an additional 50 for the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

He said the police would use November as the base month in which to determine the stations’ accomplishment in meeting quotas.

After an evaluation of the performance by each unit, the PNP would set permanent targets for each provincial station, Bartolome said.

But there would be no immediate sanctions on station commanders who fail to meet the target, he said.

“After the first month, we will evaluate which provinces do not have a lot of wanted persons, then we will change the target accordingly, depending on the situation of each station,” Bartolome said.

On Wednesday, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., also the anti-crime czar, asked the PNP to explain the recent spate of high-profile crimes in the country and ordered the organization to step up its peacekeeping efforts.

In response, the PNP announced bold new policies it hoped would improve police performance, including the deployment of administrative and office staff personnel to patrol work and the setting of quotas on the capture of wanted persons.

Bartolome said all police officers assigned to administrative work have been required to turn in at least four hours of beat patrol – from 8 to 10 a.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m.

He said the new policy should greatly improve police visibility. At present, some 15 percent of the 140,000 police force are assigned to office duty, according to Bartolome.