PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde INQUIRER PHOTO/ JAM STA ROSA
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — If the Boy Scouts live by the slogan “Do a Good Turn Daily,” the Philippine National Police now go by “One Commendable Act (OCA) per day.”
PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde launched the so-called OCA Challenge on Wednesday as part of his drive to both scale up police service to the community and cleanse the 190,000-strong force of corrupt, undisciplined and inept officers.
From now on, Albayalde said, he would not accept excuses like “no more gas” or “unavailable patrol cars” whenever the public needed police assistance.
Known as a stickler for discipline, Albayalde said sleeping on the job at the police station, riding a motorcycle without a helmet and texting while on duty would not be tolerated either.
These are not trivial acts because they violate PNP policies, he said.
But accounts of police officers refusing grease money from criminals and showing kindness that spread through word of mouth would reach a much wider audience via social media to help the PNP regain public trust, he said.
Positive activities
Commendable acts by police personnel would be celebrated on a Facebook page designed by the Central Luzon police.
The new page would highlight positive activities of the 140 police stations in Central Luzon.
Its very first posts were videos of Wednesday’s launch, a sidelight to Albayalde’s meeting with the top PNP officials in the region.
Albayalde said the OCA Challenge would go hand-in-hand with the intensification of the Double Barrel campaign against illegal drugs initiated by his predecessor, retired PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa.
“I hope you toe the line,” he told the police directors. “This is my first and last reminder to you. My directives are not new. … I’m just implementing rules and policies of the PNP.”
Albayalde urged commanders to enforce and instill discipline down to the station level so that the PNP would be spared from public doubts or irregularities.
Albayalde encouraged even the lowest ranked officers to talk to him at his Camp Crame office in Quezon City.
‘Buhay Lespu’
“We’d rather be having policemen who tell us their problems directly than have those who backstabbed us,” he said, referring to the Facebook page, “Buhay Lespu,” which had criticized him for imposing strict discipline on officers when he headed the National Capital Region Police Office.
“We have no reason to fool around because our salaries have been doubled,” he said.
The lowest ranked police officer 1, for instance, now receives a monthly salary of P29,668, double his previous pay of P14,834.
Albayalde also said PNP provincial, town and city directors would be responsible for the good and bad deeds of their personnel. Police stations, he added, must act “fast and swift” on any complaint.
“Let us do what is right. We need a culture change,” he said. “Don’t make people lose hope in us if we give them so many excuses [for our inaction].”
The most effective community relations campaign is making people “feel safe and protected,” he said.