PNP relaxes AWOL policy in Eastern Visayas

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Despite their failure to report for days, policemen affected by Typhoon Yolanda will not be declared to have gone absent without official leave (AWOL), the Philippine National Police spokesperson said Wednesday.

As “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) ravaged Visayas provinces and left thousands dead and injured, some 5,000 regional policemen were also victims of the catastrophe.

According to PNP spokesperson Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, out of the 5,000 police officers in PNP Eastern Visayas region, only 400 in Tacloban City and 600 in Samar reported back to their workplaces.

Eastern Visayas’ Samar and Leyte provinces were the hardest hit areas where one of the most powerful typhoons in history made its first two landfalls.

Sindac said the PNP “understands” the plight of the regional policemen and their families who fortunately survived the disaster.

The PNP has not given a deadline to policemen who are not able report to their respective offices.

As a policy, policemen who miss 10 days’ work will automatically be declared as AWOL while those who fail to report for 30 days will be removed from their posts.

Meanwhile, Sindac added that policemen who will be deployed to calamity stricken areas in Eastern Visayas to augment forces there will only serve for 15 days.

He said the police will observe a shifting system, meaning, augmentation forces will be sent per batch and will be replaced by another after 15 days.

Based on the latest National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council report, 4,011 were reported dead. At least 3,725 died in Samar and Leyte alone.

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