Duterte’s 1st nat’l budget should fund 16K ‘gunless’ cops—Recto

Sen. Ralph Recto. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Sen. Ralph Recto on Wednesday said the first national budget proposal under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte should include funds for the procurement of firearms for 16,140 “gunless” policemen.

Recto said the funds for guns were necessary so that the government’s ongoing law and order drive “will not just focus on illegal drugs but on other crimes as well.”

“The situation in which gunless policemen account for 11 percent of the force should not be allowed to continue,” Recto said in a statement, urging the government to proceed with its gun acquisition plan.

Citing a 2015 audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) on the Philippine National Police (PNP), Recto said only 124,738 out of 147,041 uniformed personnel have been issued short firearms as of the end of last year.

Recto said official reports pointed to a “manpower and material lack which call for more boots on the ground and more guns for policemen.”

He noted that the PNP’s gun shortage would have been eased if it did not divert a P336-million budget for gun procurement in 2012. The plan was to buy 12,268 units of 9-mm caliber pistols costing P296 million, the COA said.

Citing the same COA report, Recto said the amount was instead used to buy 20 patrol jeeps, one “Crime DataProcessing System” and an “Automated Fingerprint Identification System” which amounted to P270 million.

Recto also called for the inclusion of funds for the “recruitment, salary, and equipment” of 23,820 vacant positions in the PNP. Citing a report by the Department of Budget and Management, he said only 150,590 out of 174,410 “authorized uniformed personnel positions” were filled.

Recto said filling these posts will give 1,489 towns in the country an additional 12 policemen each and “41 more policemen for each of the 145 cities.”

“Malaking bagay ang dagdag na pulis. Lahat ng bayan at siyudad sa Pilipinas nagrereklamo na kulang sila sa pulis… ‘Yung mga pulis na ma-rerecruit natin, i-deploy natin sa mga komunidad. Hayaan nating magpatrolya para kapag nakita sila ng mga kriminal, may deterrent effect,” he said.

(Additional number of cops is significant. All towns and cities in the Philippines complain that they lack police officers. We would deploy to communities the cops we would recruit. Let us allow them to patrol the area so when the criminals see them, there would be a deterrent effect.)

“Walang duda na kaya itong pababain kung may dagdag na pulis, dagdag na gamit ng mga pulis, dagdag sweldo ng mga pulis (There is no doubt that the [crime rate] could be reduced if there would be an additional number of cops, police equipment and salary increase for police officers),” Recto added. RAM

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