Lacson pushes for bill seeking transfer of police recruits from PPSC to PNPA

Senator Panfilo Lacson sponsored on Tuesday the bill seeking to transfer the training of police recruits from the Philippine Public Safety College to the Philippine National Police amid the involvement of rookie cops in illegal activities.

Lacson, in presenting Senate Bill 1898, said as a former law enforcer himself and the eighth chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), he knows from experience that at the minimum, a police officer should have a deep understanding of the law, physical strength and fitness, knowledge of and facility with firearms, and the justified use of force — be it lethal or non-lethal.

Lacson said he also believes that a police officer should stand firm against various tests of endurance; not just of physical, but oftentimes, of moral strength.

He said thousands of non-commissioned officers and hundreds of commissioned officers are recruited into the ranks of the PNP every year. Despite this, the education and training of these uniformed men at present are not provided by the PNP but by the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC).

The PPSC is the premier educational institution for the training, human resource development, and continuing education of all personnel of the PNP, Bureau of Fire and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

The Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) and the National Police Training Institute (NPTI) are constitutive units of the PPSC with the mandates of training commissioned and non-commissioned officers, respectively.

Lacson said that as far back as 2004, in the PNP Reform Commission Report, the PNP already viewed the setup as disadvantageous to the institution. The report asserted that the quality of training conducted by the NPTI has deteriorated over the years.

He said a joint study conducted by the Philippine government and United Nations Development Program (GOP-UNDP) in 2005 attributed the problem in police training to the PPSC’s lack of accountability on its graduates’ quality of performance, among others.

“The simple truth is that there is an evident mismatch between the PNP’s training expectations and requirements to the actual services provided by the PPSC,” he said.

He noted that recent Senate hearings showed police officers involved in crimes and other shenanigans, such as bribery, kidnapping, drug use and planting of evidence, are the new members of the PNP.

“Kung sino pa ang kakalabas lang sa iskwelahan at bubot sa karanasan, sila pa ang pasimuno ng kalokohan at katiwalian,” he said.

He said that amid the anomalies, what can be seen are the lapses in the recruitment and education of police officers - phases that make up the formative stage of becoming a law enforcer.

‘Blame game’

He added that in the past years, the PPSC and PNP have bitter exchanges on who should be blamed for the lapses.

“We have proven over the years that this ‘blame game’ resolves nothing. Even worse, this aggravates the looming problems in our police service. Rightly or wrongly, the common tao are not splitting hairs on who is at fault; what they demand is the assurance of security and safety our police force has sworn to provide us, the citizenry of this Republic. Perspective-wise, however, the PNP is at the receiving end of criticisms as it stands at the frontline of law enforcement,” he said.

Lacson said it is high time to stop throwing blame and start pinpointing full responsibility by instituting amendments to the current system of education and training of the PNP personnel by placing under the PNP the two constitutive units of PPSC — the PNPA and the NPTI.

Under the proposal, the PNP Academy will be under the direct administrative and operational supervision and control of the PNP chief, while the supervision and control of the NPTI will be determined in the Revised Organizational Structure of the said Unit.

He said the transfer is also hinged on the fact that over the years, only a small percentage of PNPA graduates have opted to be assigned with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and the largest portion of students choose to join the police force.

“From 1993 to 2018, PNPA already had 5,215 graduates, of which 4,447 joined the PNP, while only 443 and 325 cadets joined the bureaus of fire and jail, respectively. This translates to an annual average of 85% of PNPA graduates becoming police officers for 26 long years,” he said.

As a consequence of the transfer, the PNP will be accountable to the entire gamut of responsibility from recruitment, education, field training and deployment of its police officers.

Under the proposal, the PNPA will still accommodate cadets for the BJMP and BFP for a period of five years from the enactment of the proposed measure.

This interim period, which may be extended upon request to the PNP, is an opportune time for the said bureaus to develop and further professionalize their own personnel.

The bill authorizes the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to create learning institutions for the BJMP and BFP under the PPSC within the five-year transition period.

In pushing for the approval of the bill, Lacson said that the two most unlikely people in the world have become one and united for the proposed measure.

“Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the principal author; and President Rodrigo Duterte, who personally conveyed through the Senate President, Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, and the chairman of the House Committee on Public Order, Rep. Romeo Acop, that I give priority in sponsoring this measure,” he said.

“For a moment Mr. President, I toyed with the idea to have this picture PhotoShopped parang magka-holding hands sila, pero baka pareho sila magalit at mademanda pa ako,” Lacson added while showing the picture of Duterte and Trillanes on the screen. — RSJ, GMA News