By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) has expressed support to the House of Representatives’ passage of the bill making the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program mandatory for senior high school students.
“We are convinced that the ROTC program is designed to build a solid foundation to instill patriotism and nationalism among the youth to become useful citizens who possess the skills, knowledge and the heart to uphold and defend the country’s national institutions and sovereignty,” PNP Chief, Gen. Oscar Albayalde said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said the PNP would make representations in the drafting of the law and its implementing rules and regulations that would include subjects on law enforcement, disaster response, rule of law and civil rights in addition to basic military science subjects.
“A small country like ours deserve to have a strong reserve force that can be called upon to augment the existing complement of regular forces. God forbid that we will need to mobilize our reserve force like what we did in World War II, but when the situation presents itself, the reservists shall prove themselves ready and up to the task,” he said.
Albayalde said the PNP also welcomes legislative measures that seek to expand the role of women in law enforcement with a significant 20 percent hike in the number of female personnel in the police service.
“As far as the recruitment and selection process is concerned, I am pleased to announce that the PNP is 100 percent compliant with the requirements of the law in terms of gender equality and empowerment of women,” he said.
He said the PNP has done away with the traditional troop ceiling for women and other gender restrictions in recruitment and selection thus opening equal opportunities in filling-up of vacant positions.
He said the 180,767-strong PNP is composed of 83.4 percent male and 16.6 percent female personnel. Women officers comprise 14 percent of the PNP Officer Corps.
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