Cebu is hosting Phil-Indon police cooperation confab

Representatives from the Philippine and Indonesian national police are here in Cebu for the quarterly meeting on the two countries’ joint police training operations.

Police Regional Office Director Ronald Roderos yesterday said the Philippine panel is Philippine National Police deputy chief of operations while the Indonesian panel is being headed by the Deputy Chief of the Indonesian National Police.

The Philippine- Indonesian Police Joint Committee quarterly meeting is said to focus on the two countries’ police operations on their maritime borders and will tackle joint training courses for Maritime Police and Border Patrols and standard procedures on police operations, including conduct and guidelines of the handover of criminal suspects.

Roderos said the meeting would also tackle preventing cross borders, transnational crimes and most especially terrorism on the Philippine and Indonesian borders.

The training courses are also aimed to bring strong cooperation between the two police forces in preventing and fighting high seas crimes such as shipment of illegal drugs and smuggled products, piracy, and human trafficking.

While the sub-committee meeting is being held here, the training operations will be held in the regions bordering the Philippines, including Regions IX, XI, XII and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Roderos said that the panels of PNP and INP chose to hold the meeting here because of Cebu’s peaceful and orderly environment.

“They chose not to conduct the meeting in the borders but here in Cebu because Cebu is very peaceful. They are here and they also want to be tourists here in Cebu together with their families.” Roderos said.

Other upcoming activities this year include the Phil-Indo Police Workshop-Command Post Exercise in November and the Joint PNP-INP Trainers Training. The next joint meeting will be held in Indonesia in September.

The last Phil-Indo Police Joint Committee Meeting was held in Bali, Indonesia where the two police agencies agreed to hold more frequent meetings and joint training programs.

It was also there where panels from the PNP and Indonesian National Police adopted a schedule of joint activities for the remaining of the year and for early next year. – Cressida Paula G. Delmo/JMO