GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/23 September) — Police officials in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao are optimistic over the region’s chances of landing among the top three best regional police units in the country after gaining improved ratings in the ongoing annual general inspection of various police units in the area.
Chief Supt. Gil Meneses, acting Region 12 police director, said Thursday he is so far satisfied with initial results of the week-long evaluation as it showed that police units in the region are more than prepared in terms of performing their regular duties and various special functions.
“Our overall performance has vastly improved since last year and I’m confident that we can contend for the top three model regional police office this year,” he said.
The Police Regional Office (PRO) 12 based in Barangay Tambler here and various provincial, city and municipal police units in the region have been undergoing comprehensive evaluation since Monday as part of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Annual General Inspection and
Operational Readiness Security Inspection Test and Evaluation (AGI-ORSITE).
Region 12 covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Cotabato and Kidapawan.
Meneses said the inspectorate team from the PNP national headquarters in Camp Crame led by Chief Supt.
Jessor Arguilles initially appraised the regional office’s personnel, equipment, facilities and capability.
“They conducted an actual accounting of our personnel, inspected our uniforms and issued firearms as well as the set-up of our different offices to check pertinent documents and facilities necessary for our operation,” he said.
In terms of operational capability, he said the inspectors also assessed the readiness of the regional office and other units in the region on the execution of defense plans, basic emergency drills and the execution of tactics and strategies in managing crisis situations.
Chief Insp. Jomar Alexis Yap, PRO-12 public information officer, said the inspection specifically covered demonstrations on camp defense plan, fire plan, low risk and high risk checkpoint scenarios, hostage negotiation, first-aid test, civil disturbance management, bomb disposal test, close quarter battle, crime scene investigation, mobility test, immediate action drill, arrest-search and handcuffing techniques, communication test, response time, sniping test and bank robbery test.
He said a general knowledge examination was also conducted on all police personnel in the region to evaluate their knowledge on the updates regarding PNP guidelines and significant changes within the organization.
Yap said the teams from the region’s public safety battalions demonstrated different situations on immediate action drill that covers engagement, ambush, compromise and raid.
Meantime, Supt. Jose Calimutan, deputy South Cotabato police director, said they received “very satisfactory” ratings in the initial inspection conducted by Camp Crame’s AGI-ORSITE team in the province.
He said they specifically recorded perfect scores or 100 percent rating in two evaluation areas and scored between 90 to 94 percent in the other fields.
“This is a major accomplishment for us so far and we’re hoping to contend for the model provincial police office award this year,” he said.
(Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)