GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/15 March) – Police authorities in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao are set to recruit at least 300 new policemen within the next three months in a bid to further strengthen the region’s police force.
Chief Supt. Gil Meneses, Region 12 police director, said Tuesday the new round of personnel recruitment was endorsed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) national directorate to fill up the vacant positions in local police stations and offices.
He said they already opened the application for the hiring of the additional policemen, who would be assigned in various police units in the region within the first half of the year.
“We’re mainly building up the strength or manpower of our police stations and offices to enhance their operational capabilities,” Meneses said in a radio interview.
The police official said the assignment of the additional policemen to local police units in the region will depend on the available vacant slots and their operational needs.
Region 12 covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
Senior Police Officer 2 Renjun Bagaman, spokesperson of the South Cotabato Provincial Police Office, said the PNP has modified the procedures for this year’s personnel recruitment by giving local police stations and offices more hand in the processing of the applications.
He said prospective applicants are required to coordinate with PNP units within their respective localities as part of the application process.
“The process is now more localized unlike before wherein all applications were handled by the regional offices,” Bagaman said.
In this city, Senior Supt. Cedric Train, city police director, said they were assigned at least 45 slots out of the available positions that have been allotted for the region.
He said the assigned slots represent various positions at the city’s eight police stations that had been left vacant due to retirement as well as relief and reassignment of local police personnel.
Train said they will also fill up the positions left by some policemen who had joined the PNP’s United Nations peacekeeping contingent and those who had left their jobs to work abroad.
“The screening process is quite stringent this time so we’re hoping to get the most qualified and capable applicants to fill up these vacancies,” he said.
(Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
