Ten W. Visayas cops avail PNP’s localization program

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

Ten personnel of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-6 will now be working closer to home.

This, after their application to avail of the PNP’s localization program was approved.

They were among the 2,222 police personnel who were initially approved to take part in the program dubbed as “Localization of Assignments.”

PNP chief General Camilo Pancratius Cascolan on Wednesday, October 14, led the simultaneous send-off ceremony for the localization program beneficiaries via Zoom.

Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, Western Visayas police chief, said the ten personnel will be reassigned to PROs 7, 9, 10, 12, and MIMAROPA.

Ten are from the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOcPPO), two each from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion and Aklan Police Provincial Office, and one from Antique PPO.

“This would lift the morale of our personnel considering they’d be serving their hometowns,” Pamuspusan said.

The region’s top cop earlier said there were 83 policemen who initially applied for the localization program.

However, only 10 were approved for now.

All over the country, PNP records showed that around 8,561 personnel have signified intention to be reassigned in their places of residence.

The list was trimmed down to 7,410 police non-commissioned officers (PNCOs) who qualified for the program.

Cascolan has earlier said that the program is in consonance to Section 63 of Republic Act 8551 or the Philippine National Police Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998.

The law states the provision for PNP members with the ranks of Patrolman/woman up to Police Executive Master Sergeant will be “assigned to the city and municipality of their recruitment and/or place of residence or if not possible, to the closest municipality, province or regions to his residence.”

Cascolan believed that if an officer is assigned to his or her hometown, province, or region, it will give the police officer the sense of ownership of the locality that he or she represents.”

Meanwhile, the PNP leadership assured that the localization program will be implemented with proper swapping of personnel.

Further, personnel who will be transferring to other regions must comply with the minimum health standards set to prevent the spread of COVID19.