MANILA — The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the Philippine National Police on Thursday vowed to beef up cooperation in various aspects.
“There will be collaboration with the PNP so that their personnel can further improve and, therefore, perform better,” CBCP-Public Affairs Committee (PAC) chairman Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista said in an interview following the meeting between police and Church officials in Intramuros, Manila.
Among the areas of collaboration which were tackled during the meeting were CBCP’s support to the PNP’s internal cleansing program and involvement of various dioceses in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug offenders.
The PNP has also sought the CBCP’s assistance in filling up 17 vacant plantilla positions for Catholic chaplains.
Evangelista noted that their commitment with the PNP includes the regular provision of recollection and personal values formation to police personnel.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde, meanwhile, echoed Evangelista’s remarks as he expressed high hopes for a working relationship with the Catholic Church.
“We asked for their help in our internal cleansing program and the CBCP has been very receptive to us and they are very much willing to help us in the values formation for our police force,” Albayalde said.
“The meeting ended on a high note. Before we adjourned, both CBCP and PNP panels agreed to hold more regular dialogues to firm up areas of collaboration that were identified,” he added.
Albayalde also revealed their initial findings on the current status of murder cases involving Catholic priests.
“We briefed the CBCP officials on the present status of murder cases involving members of the Catholic clergy and apprised them of our initial findings that: 1. These murder cases were unrelated; 2. There are different motives, and; 3. There is no apparent pattern in all of these incidents,” Albayalde said.
Joining the PNP chief during the meeting were Director for Operations, Dir. Ma O Aplasca; Director for Police Community Relations, Dir. Eduardo Serapio Garado; NCRPO Director Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar; and Public Information Office chief Senior Supt. Benigno Durana.
They were received by Evangelista, CBCP Secretary-General Rev. Fr. Marvin S. Mejia; Fr. Bernardo Pantin; and Fr. Jerome Secillano.
For his part, CBCP-PAC executive secretary Fr. Jerome Secillano reported that the communication lines with the PNP leadership are open.
“What is good is that they guaranteed us an open line, that whenever we need them, we can immediately coordinate with them,” Secillano said.
Secillano, however, said there is no need to ask the police to beef up security in churches.
“It did not come to a point during the meeting that we requested them to assign police in churches,” he said.
The meeting with the Church and PNP officials lasted for almost two hours. (Ferdinand Patinio and Benjamin Pulta/PNA)
