Skills upgrade, new guns for PNP

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines—The Calabarzon police is continuing a skills upgrading program for policemen that would include the purchase of new firearms to be handled by Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno, a former gun trader.

The Calabarzon PNP yesterday went on the second phase of its SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) skills upgrade training and shoot fest as part of continuing preparations for crisis situations that followed the Aug. 23, 2010, bloody hostage taking at the Luneta in Manila.

The bloody event led to a review of PNP and local government preparedness in handling similar crisis situations. It also led to a protocol prepared by Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao that is now being used by the Department of Interior and Local Government as model for crisis handling by LGUs and local police nationwide.

Pagdilao earlier said the protocol is more needed in Metro Manila where the chances of a similar crisis taking place was higher.

According to Pagdilao, aside from the purchase of new equipment for PNP, Puno was also standardizing the PNP’s arsenal of weapons for “interchangeability.”

In his speech at the Philippine National Police Academy, Puno failed to give details on the cost of the new firearms, but a former SWAT official said a SWAT member equipped with “basic” gear would cost the government at least P500,000.

Pagdilao said the government is studying how to speed up the procurement process without violating existing rules.