Pay hike may prevent cops from turning bad, senators told

PHOTO FROM PNP PIO

Philippine National Police (PNP)  personnel might be discouraged to commit illegal acts if their pay would be raised.

This is, at least, the hope of Police Deputy Director General Fernando Mendez, when he  faced a Senate hearing on Wednesday on the  PNP’s  support for a joint resolution  that would raise the base pay of military and uniformed personnel (MUP) in government.

“This will surely go a long way in uplifting and boosting the morale of the PNP personnel,”  Mendez said during the hearing.

“And we’re hoping that with this substantial increase in the salaries  of the PNP personnel, we will be able to discourage them  from committing illegal acts and will help us in our ongoing internal cleansing of our force ….”

With increased  pay, the  police official believes the PNP personnel would value  their service  more.

Police Director Rene Aspera  also expressed hope the pay hike  would  encourage more  civilians to join the police service.

“Because right now, we’re having a hard time in recruitment process  so with this impending  increase in our  salary, this will encourage our civilian to  join  the uniformed service,” Aspera said

For Undersecretary Catalino Cuy, officer in charge at the Department  of Interior and   Local Government,   the  pay hike  is a “blessing”  to the  MUP,  especially this Christmas season.

Cuy noted that under the  proposed  the resolution, the base pay of a Police Office  1  would be raised to P29,000 from the current  P14,800  while all other ranks  would  receive an average increase of 59 percent in their  salaries.

“In anticipation of the Christmas season, this is a blessing that everyone of us is looking forward with  much hope and prayers,”    he said.

“While we laugh and mingle with loved ones  during  the season, our uniformed men and women will be working for hours to protect  the public and make them safe. These are hour heroes, those who risk their lives everyday to protect our country and make it  a better place, —police, jail guards, soldier,  firefighters and members of the armed forces,” Cuy added.

Senator  Panfilo Lacson, chair of the Senate committee on public orders and illegal drugs,  said the measure would now be endorsed  for plenary  consideration.