Camp Olivas, Pampanga — Police Lt. General Guillermo Eleazar on Thursday conducted an inspection audit of police personnel detailed to different units in Central Luzon amid the “localization” move being pushed by the top officials of the Philippine National Police.
The objective, Eleazar said, is to check the administrative and operational performance of Police Regional Office 3 (PRO3) and compare it with public expectation, in line with the PNP 9-point program of Police Chief Director Geneal Camilo Pancratius Cascolan.
“The localization thrust involved non-commissioned police officers. It also strengthen other PNP Offices, including the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO) by giving it serious task and responsibilities in terms of anti-insurgency campaign, disaster response and search and rescue operations,” said Eleazar.
It was Eleazar’s first visit to the regional police headquarters since he was designated as the PNP Deputy Director General for Administration (DDA).
He said the PNP will check the effort of PRO3 “so that we can recommend ways to improve and what support it needed for the welfare of Central Luzon police personnel.”
The localization program, Eleazar said is based on the PNP Law, where one of the provisions calls for the assignment of policemen in places where they reside, for them to be more effective and capable law enforcers.
“We have to study and evaluate properly to balance the strength of PNP in the countryside and the effect of localization to the organization, to make sure that everything will run smoothly as expected,” Eleazar explained.
The localization of assignments “is the idea of CPNP Cascolan,” he said.
Eleazar cited an example the NCR Police Office, where more than 7,000 cops have signified interest to be reassigned to places where their families are staying. This can happen through swapping or replacement only, he said.
“Kailangan kung ililipat ang isang pulis sa kanyang bayan kailangan meron kaswap or kapalit upang hindi magkulang ng personnel ang isang unit,” Eleazar pointed out.
He said a parameter and guidelines will be released for those who qualified and applied for reassignment for us to determine who among the applicants will be listed as priority.
One of the parameters, Eleazar said, is that an applicant for reassignment must be a natural-born native of the place where he intends to be assigned, has no pending cases in any courts, and not holding sensitive position on present position.
“We will however see to it that the localization program will not be a vicious cycle,” Eleazar said, adding that the program will be implemented once the parameters and guidelines are in place.