CAMP KANGLEON, Palo, Leyte, – The hiring of 603 civilian employees this year will allow the Police Regional Office 8 (PRO8) to deploy the same number of policemen to the streets for increased police presence and combat criminality, the region’s top police official said.
“This will close the gap in achieving the ideal 1 is to 500 police-to-population ratio as our policemen will now focus on actual law enforcement tasks like patrolling the streets, investigating crimes and traffic management instead of performing clerical works,” said Police Chief Supt. Henry Losañes, acting regional director of PRO8.
Losañes earlier announced the hiring of 603 non-uniformed personnel (NUPs) or civilian employees aimed at freeing policemen from doing administrative tasks and the deployment of more cops to the streets for crime prevention and control.
He added that the recruitment of civilian employees will increase police presence in the field and boost their anti-crime efforts.
There are currently 6,101 policemen in the region and about 10 percent of them are doing desk jobs or engaged in administrative works. The PRO8 also has 140 NUPs or civilian employees.
“We will hire two IT (information technology) and two communication equipment operators per municipality or city that will be assigned as crime registrars,” the police official said.
The quota intended for Eastern Visayas is part of the 7,439 civilian employees who will be hired by the Philippine National Police (PNP) nationwide to fill the posts occupied by policemen doing administrative works.
On the recommendation of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, President Benigno Aquino III approved the hiring of civilian employees who will be tasked to perform administrative work.
The PNP has recommended the hiring of 15,000 civilian employees and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has approved an initial budget for 7,439.
By: PINSP ROMUEL NACAR, PIO PRO8
