PNP launches program to train civilians as bodyguards for VIPs

To relieve policemen of the task of securing civilians with very important personality status, the Philippine National Police (PNP) launched a program that will provide training for civilians who can then be detailed as security escorts for civilian VIPs.

For starters, a total of 40 applicants began a 45-day training course yesterday under the supervision of officers of the PNP Civil Security Group (CSG) under Chief Superintendent Leonardo Dionisio.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, also chairman of the National Police Commission (Napolcom), said the VIP security program also aims to professionalize the security industry so it can make available highly trained and disciplined bodyguards for individuals who need such services and for visiting dignitaries.

Puno said training civilians to become security escorts will also allow the maximum utilization of active-duty policemen for actual police duties and restore dignity to the police force.

When he assumed the DILG post early this year, Puno ordered the pullout of PNP personnel doing "bodyguard" duties to politicians and other VIPs.

Puno said PNP personnel still assigned to the VIPs will be given one year to return to their mother units and resume actual police duties.

On top of their salaries, police personnel assigned as security officers of VIPs receive allowances from the civilians they secure, while those tasked to do anti-criminality and anti-insurgency campaigns, the most dangerous assignments in the police force, receive only regular salaries from Camp Crame.

Dionisio said the 40 civilians chosen from among 100 applicants will constitute the first batch of VIP security personnel to take courses that include firearms proficiency training and training that covers the other security aspects of work as a bodyguard.

Officers of the Philippine Practical Shooting Association (PPSA) will assist in the training of the new VIP security recruits in firearms handling by honing their shooting skills at the PNP firing range.

At present, Puno said, they are still checking the records of VIPs who asked for and were assigned police security details to determine if the threats against their lives still exist or not. — Cecille Suerte Felipe