Cascolan: PNP eyeing to add more police stations in far-flung areas

The Philippine National Police is eyeing to add more police stations, especially in far-flung areas, its chief said on Monday.

At a press briefing, Police General Camilo Pancratius Cascolan stressed that a lot of areas, particularly in Mindanao, still need police stations and not just police assistance centers.

"That's being evaluated. Actually pinag-isipan na rin natin 'yan, lalo't lalo na doon sa mga areas ng Mindanao and other far-flung areas wherein a police station is really needed, not only a police assistance center," Cascolan said.

"We are evaluating a lot of police stations, we are trying to see where are they supposed to be established kasi marami pa rin, mayroon pa rin mga mayors na nilalagay lang sa isang lugar nila, sa isang bahay... wala talagang established na police station," he added.

In relation to this, Cascolan said the PNP is also studying the proper police to population ratio for effective execution of duties among police personnel.

"Ang sinabi ko nga ang dapat pag-aralan talaga kung ilan talaga ang police to population ratio. Is it 1 to 500 or 1 to 300? Considering the administrative responsiblities being done," he said.

Meanwhile, Cascolan was also asked about the decongestion of police units and offices inside Camp Crame. He said this is the main reason why the PNP is asking for an additional budget.

"Medyo malaki rin pero we really need to do this hoping our budget was actually approved already so from there hopefully we would already start the mass development of our DIPO (Directorate for Integrated Police Operations) camps," Cascolan said.

Cascolan said most DIPOs are starting to transfer to their respective areas of responsibility so that they could also monitor the establishment of their camps.

"They are slowly going out of their offices and going to their respective areas of responsibility so that they would be able to improve inter-coordination and cooperation with the AFP with regard to counter-insurgency and at the same time personally supervise the establishment of their camps," Cascolan said.

"For the meantime they will be staying in regions where there are extra housing or extra buildings," he added. — RSJ, GMA News