More cops to boost insurgency drive – PNP

To support the bigger and more aggressive role in counter-insurgency campaign, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has stepped up screening for at least 4,500 new recruits who will beef up police units across the country.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon said the new recruits will join some 3,000 new police officers deployed in several field units as part of the police force’s shift to a more active role in the government’s counter-insurgency operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) communist rebels.

"As we prepare to perform our new function in the government’s counter-insurgency campaign, we are strengthening line units by filling up their personnel requirements and providing for their operational needs for mission-essential equipment," Calderon said.

Calderon ordered Director Nicolas Pasinos, the PNP’s head of personnel and records management, to ensure that only those who are most qualified will be considered for recruitment.

There are over 10,000 who applied for the job. About 15 percent or 675 of these are reserved for female applicants, he said.

Pasinos said the 4,500 recruits will fill up vacancies in the PNP due to retirement, separation, death and termination of service.

Based on PNP records, there are some 2,600 policemen who are expected to retire from the service this year.

Police authorities explained that the entire processing and screening period for applicants will take 75 calendar days and the successful 4,500 applicants will take their oath on Nov. 6.

After the oath taking, the recruits will undergo six months of basic training that will be followed by field training before they are given their assignments.

Two hundred of the recruits will be assigned to the Ilocos Region, 200 to Cagayan Valley, 350 to Central Luzon, 400 to Calabarzon, 150 to Mimaropa, 275 to the Bicol Region, 250 to Western Visayas, 250 to Eastern Visayas, 200 to Western Mindanao, 225 to Southern Mindanao, 200 to Central Mindanao, 200 to Caraga, 100 to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 150 to the Cordillera Administrative Region, 300 to Metro Manila, 200 to the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame and 400 to the Special Action Force.

The recruits will be appointed to the rank of PO1 with a monthly gross salary and allowances totaling P12,000.

The government has been fighting one of the world’s most tenacious Maoist insurgencies for the past 37 years.

Mrs. Arroyo shelved peace talks with the CPP two years ago after the rebels were blacklisted by the United States as "foreign terrorist organizations."

NPA guerrillas — with an estimated strength of 7,400 — are spread throughout the Philippine archipelago, straining the manpower and supply lines of the 120,000-strong military, which carries the bulk of counter-insurgency operations.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered intensified military operations against the NPA after she quelled in February a reported conspiracy between renegade military officers, communist rebels and elements of the opposition to take over the government.