Recruitment of poor Moros into police force pushed

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police and Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu have jointly recommended the decentralization of recruitment tests for policemen to enable poor Moro applicants in far-flung areas to join the force.

The consensus was jointly announced by Mangudadatu and the ARMM’s police director, Chief Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, during a meeting on Monday in Camp S.K. Pendatun in Parang town in this province.

Mangudadatu was an honoree in Monday’s distinguished guest program of the ARMM police, which capped the traditional command flag ceremony at the sprawling parade ground of Camp S.K. Pendatun.

Mangudadatu said he will ask the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP), through Board Member Bobby Katambak, to draft a resolution seeking the consent of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Police Commission on their proposal to conduct the entrance exams in Maguindanao towns.

“There are students in the province who wants to join the PNP, but whose parents cannot even afford to send them to the cities where the entrance exams are being traditionally administered,” Mangudadatu said.

Delos Reyes told journalists who covered Monday’s event at Camp S.K. Pendatun that conducting the police entrance exams in selected towns in the province will also enable children of active members of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to participate in the testing process.

“This is good for the peace process. I use to write the leaders of the MNLF and MILF and ask them to let their qualified followers take the exams whenever there are PNP entrance exams in designated examination centers,” Delos Reyes said.

Mangudadatu said he is optimistic that members of the provincial board will support the passage of the resolution Katambak will propose. Katambak, a human rights lawyer, is chairman of the SP’s finance, and peace and order, and public safety committees.

“The inter-agency provincial peace and order council where I am chairman can also pass a separate resolution toward that goal,” Mangudadatu said.

Delos Reyes awarded Mangudadatu, while at Camp S.K. Pendatun, with two separate citations for his support to the peacekeeping missions of the PNP in the autonomous region.

"The governor has been doing his best to help maintain utmost professionalism in the ranks of all police units in Maguindanao," Delos Reyes said.

Mangudadatu said he wants the PNP-ARMM to organize a “ police job fair” for the provincial government’s more than 4,000 scholars during the February 2014 'Sagayan Festival' in the province for them to learn how to become police officers.

“Hundreds of our scholars now studying in different colleges are, in fact, from communities where there are strongholds of the MILF and some were admitted into the program through the recommendation of MNLF and MILF leaders,” Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu’s sibling, Assemblyman Khadafe Mangudadatu of the ARMM’s 24-seat Regional Assembly, said he has a draft resolution seeking the conduct of police entrance exams in the provinces of the autonomous region, and not just in key cities in the far away Administrative Regions 9, 10, 11, and 12.

"Imagine? Applicants from Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi have to go to Zamboanga City for the entrance exams, while applicants in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao have to take the exams outside of the provinces too, which is  costly for parents of prospective examinees," Assemblyman Mangudadatu said.

He said he is just as optimistic his colleagues in the ARMM's 'Little Congress' will approve his draft resolution in support of the efforts to have the PNP entrance test held in selected ARMM towns and in the capitals of its five provinces.

The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.

The lawmaker said one way of ensuring protection and utmost professionalism in the testing process is for Napolcom and Camp Crame to let teams from outside of ARMM administer the exams in selected areas in the autonomous region.