Incoming Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde’s “mission number one” will be to fill the projected 25,938 police vacancies this year, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said Wednesday.
“If all of these positions are filled, and distributed equally to the country’s 1,489 municipalities, each will have an additional 17 policemen. If 20 percent of the slots will be allotted to cities, each will receive 35 more policemen,” Recto said in a statement.
The senator said the challenge is to put “more boots on the ground,” as the annual population increase of 1.67 million triggers a corresponding need to boost police strength by 3,340 yearly, on a 1:500 cop-to-population ratio.
He said if all of these new recruits will be given patrolling duties, it will solve the chronic lack of police officers on the ground.
“Sa ngayon kasi, wala ka nang pulis na makikita sa ilalim ng tulay, flyover o underpass. Sadyang kulang talaga,” (right now, you can’t see police officers under bridges, flyovers or underpasses. There is really a shortage) he said.
According to Recto, the PNP has an authorized uniformed troop strength of 194,410, of which only 168,472 are or will be filled this year, based on the Department of Budget and Management-prepared 2018 government “staffing pattern.”
“But not all of the 168,472 are on duty—some may be sick, absent, on schooling, suspended, or assigned to administrative duties, so the actual policeman-to-population ratio at any given hour of the day is below what is on paper,” Recto said.
To close the huge gap in unfilled police officer positions, the senator said, the PNP must go on a recruiting spree, using the recent doubling of the base pay of the entry-level Police Officer 1 to P 29,668 as a come-on.”
“General Albayalde seems to be a good poster boy for recruitment. But there are other programs and policies that could boost recruitment. They can expand the applicant base by relaxing height or age requirement. And offer more review classes to improve test passing rate,” he said.
“Before you can put more policemen on the streets, you have to put more of them in uniform first,” he added. /muf