By C. Lloyd T. Caliwan, Antonette B. Tagnipez & Mariane Clarize V. Noriega
MANILA, Feb. 16 (PNA) – The Philippine National Police celebrated its 24th anniversary on Monday, highlighted by the giving of awards and recognition to the good performing units of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for their contributions to the success of the NCRPO undertakings.
“Today, as we celebrate the 24th founding anniversary of the Philippine National Police, we will also honor another milestone in the history of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO). Looking back at exactly eight months before, on June 16, 2014, we started to initiate new strategies with the aim of tilting the balance of the growing adverse public perception about rising criminality in the National Capital Region (NCR),” Deputy Regional Director for Operations Police Chief Supt. Allen Bantolo told the PNP officers and men gathered at the NCRPO Headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
Bantolo noted the significant improvement in the anti-crime campaign with the launching of the “Oplan Lambat Sibat,” which is a multi-dimensional approach in addressing criminality in urban setting.
He also cited the PNP’s integrated patrol system, management tools for field commanders and the manageable operational results as their accomplishments against criminality in the past year.
“As we reinvigorated our anti-criminality campaign, or the Oplan Lambat Sibat, we have all witnessed the remarkable and significant improvement in the NCR crime situation,” he said.
“Oplan Lambat,” as implied by its name, was designed to function as a net for petty criminals. Each strand represents a smaller police operation such as increased checkpoints, mobile and beat patrols, intensified serving of arrest warrants, and customized police deployment and operations in densely populated areas, including malls, MRT and LRT stations, and other transport terminals.
On the other hand, “Oplan Sibat” was designed as a unified intelligent target operations of the PNP, using combined intelligence resources of various operating units.
“Our Oplan Lambat Sibat has been able to yield tangible results by organizing our weekly crime trend and reducing the number by 50 percent from its comparative baseline period from Dec. 21, 2013 to June 15, 2014. In eight months, we have learned to embrace the doctrine of the whole of PNP approach. We have truly appreciated the essence of impact of deliberate, systematic and programmatic development of policy,” he explained.
During the celebration, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II, as the guest of honor and speaker, honored the fallen 44 Special Action Force (SAF) heroes on behalf of a grateful nation.
”Their lives and memories are forever etched in our minds and hearts for the ultimate sacrifice that they gave for our people and our nation. We cannot deny their nobility, their courage, and their sacrifices which led to the death of Marwan. They did their job, to the ultimate. We honor them every day by likewise doing our work, professionally, competently and responsibly. The mandate of the police is very simple: to serve and to protect,” Roxas said.
He also proudly cited how the PNP, through the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), served and protected the citizens of the NCR in the last seven months.
“From more than a thousand incidents a week of theft, robbery, carnapping and motorcycle-napping, it has been reduced through the NCRPO command and PNP to 436 last week, 522 in the week before that, 577 the week prior to that, and 563 in the week prior to that. For four weeks, the number has stayed within the 500 level and recently reduced to 436. These are due to your efforts,” Roxas told the officers and men.
Roxas noted that it was hard to achieve that number, but week after week, they have learned from their mistakes of the preceding week and they have strengthened and fortified their efforts.
According to the DILG secretary, the Northern Police District (NPD) covering the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela recorded 73 unresolved cases of robbery, theft, car-napping and motorcycle-napping within their areas of responsibility in the first half of 2014, but the figure was reduced to 42 last week.
The Eastern Police District (EPD) encompassing the cities of Makati, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasig and San Juan managed to reduce its record unresolved cases of 110 to 81 cases.
In the same vein, and Manila Police District, reduced the number of its unsolved cases from 220 cases to 97.
In the Southern Police District (SPD) covering Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Pasay, Paranaque, Taguig and Pateros, the number of unresolved cases was down from 222 last year to 75 this year.
The Quezon City Police District (QCPD), which previously had 270 recorded cases, halved this number to 141.
Taking the above statistics into account, Roxas concluded that NCR is much safer this year compared to 2014 as a result of the perseverance, dedication, professionalism and service of the police officers.
”All of you who wear the uniform, take an oath. All of you who wear a uniform, every day, you know the possible peril you may be involved in when you wear that uniform. We owe a lot to the men and women in uniform; all the support, the resources, the effort so that when you do your part, the rest of the government also does its part. It will not only be an effort of the whole PNP but it will be a whole government approach so that we may apply the efforts and achievements in NCR to the whole country,” Roxas said.
”To the men and women of NCRPO, the men and women of the Philippine National Police nationwide, although we are celebrating our 24th PNP Foundation Day, it is really over a hundred years since the first constabulary of police force was set up in our country. Over that century, there have been ups and downs, good and bad, happiness and sadness. Today, naghahalo ang lungkot at tuwa. Lungkot sa nangyari sa ating heroes sa Mamasapano; tuwa naman sa accomplishment ng NCRPO na naipababa sa kalahati ang bilang ng krimen dito sa NCR (It was mixed emotions. Sad due to the Mamasampano incident; happy because of the accomplishment of the NCRPO to lessen the crimes),” Roxas said.
Meanwhile, 38 police commanders, commissioned and non-commissioned officers were given Medalya ng Paglilingkod Laban sa Kriminalidad sa NCR during the event. (PNA)