Senator Drilon questioned the practice of assigning administrative work to police officers

September 14, 2019 Admin

Senator Drilon questioned the practice of assigning administrative work to police officers

During the Senate Hearing of the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) 2020 budget last week September 9, 2019, Sen. Franklin Drilon remarked that the need to assign police officers to administrative jobs was reducing police visibility, particularly in urban centers.

He then told PNP Chief Police General Oscar Albayalde:

“Why do we have policemen doing administrative work? Why don’t we hire personnel just for administrative work? The police officers are trained for peacekeeping. They are not trained to do office work,”

“You are not hiring fast enough, notwithstanding the authority given to you to hire 10,000 (personnel) per year and yet with 26,685 vacancies, that means we’re two years in a half backlogged,”

Senator Drilon adduced that it is important for the policemen to be seen in public (performing police visibility) since this has been proven to be an effective crime deterrent.

READ: PNP RECRUITMENT PROCESS

General Albayalde replied that the agency already had organized a program recruiting 15,000 non-uniformed personnel, of which 11,768 positions had been occupied.

“This program would replace PNP personnel doing administrative work,” – said General Albayalde

The PNP receives a large number of applications for patrolman position, but only a few make it through the stringent hiring process.

As of now due to its hiring backlog, the PNP follows an 85%-15% police personnel deployment, where 85% of the police force is deployed in the field while 15% remain in the offices for administrative work.

READ: Pay and Allowances of PNP Uniformed Personnel

Strict requirements

DILG Secretary Eduardo Año brought up that they have been receiving numerous applications now since the government offers higher pay for policemen. However, they cannot maximize these due to strict hiring requirements.

“In the Armed Forces of the Philippines, you can already serve with a K-12 [education]. Here, you must be a college graduate and possess a civil service eligibility,” he said.

“That’s why it’s difficult to get recruits and fill the unfilled positions,” he added.

Under Duterte’s administration, several lawmakers filed bill to repeal some provisions from Republic Act 6975 (Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990) purposely giving greater opportunity to join the PNP.