PNP asks for P72.1B budget, vows response to crime in 15 minutes—Recto

Sen. Ralph Recto INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—If you can get your pizza delivered in 30 minutes, is it too much to ask the police to respond to a distress call within 15 minutes?

Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the Philippine National Police has promised to consistently address crimes within 15 minutes while asking for a P72.1-billion share in the P2.26-trillion national budget for 2014.

With the proposed PNP budget, the police also promised to increase the number of foot and car patrols by 25 percent.

Recto lauded the PNP’s commitment to a faster response time, saying “it can be a deterrent against crime because nothing dissuades a criminal more than the certainty of arrest.”

“If pizza companies can promise to deliver your pizza in 30 minutes or you get it for free, then why can’t the police have that same response time in life-and-death situations?” Recto said in a statement.

For criminals to be stopped from escaping in 60 seconds, “our police must be given all the resources so they can be at the scene of the crime, not just in 60 minutes, but in seconds,” Recto added.

Recto said this can be addressed by the proposed 2014 allocation of P100 million for new structures, P1.8 billion for new vehicles and P925 million for other equipment.

He added that among the PNP’s planned “major final outputs” for 2014 were to promptly investigate the projected 629,258 crimes for next year and achieve a five-percent jump in the apprehension rate of “most wanted criminals.”

The PNP also vowed to arrest five percent of the most wanted criminals within 30 days of receipt of a court-issued warrant of arrest.

Citing PNP statistics, Recto said the index crime in 2012 numbered 129,161 cases while those in the non-index crime category were 88,651 cases for a total case volume of 217,812.