Gender equality upheld in cops’ recruitment: Albayalde

“As far as the recruitment and selection process is concerned, I am pleased to announce that the PNP is 100-percent compliant to the requirements of law in terms of gender equality and empowerment of women.” (File Photo: Philippine National Police/Facebook)

MANILA — Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde on Monday assured that the police organization upholds gender equality in the recruitment of police officers.

“As far as the recruitment and selection process is concerned, I am pleased to announce that the PNP is 100-percent compliant to the requirements of law in terms of gender equality and empowerment of women,” Albayalde told reporters on Monday during a press briefing.

Albayalde said the PNP has removed the traditional troop ceiling for women and other gender restrictions in recruitment and selection, thus opening equal opportunities for both genders in filling-up of vacant positions.

“Although the PNP remains a male-dominated organization, women are continuously taking a permanent foothold in the policing landscape. The Women Police Service (WPS), traditionally delegated to auxiliary functions, has been deactivated and its women members had been integrated into the regular force alongside their male counterparts,” he said.

He added that the current 180-767 strong PNP is composed of 83.4-percent male and 16.6-percent female personnel where women officers comprise 14 percent of the PNP Officer Corps.

“Consistent with the national policy on Gender and Development, the PNP remains responsive to perennial gender issues and concerns, including those raised during the just-concluded Women in Policing Summit that convened last week in Cebu City,” he said.

Meanwhile, Albayalde said the PNP, thru the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management (DPRM), is in the middle of a comprehensive selection process in coordination with the National Police Commission to fill-up 4,014 vacancies for Line Officers under the 2018 Lateral Entry Program.

The candidates will be chosen from among an initial pool of 7,205 Police Non-Commissioned Officers qualified as registered criminologists with ranks of PO3 to SPO4 on active duty who took the Written Competitive Examination last September 23, 2018 in various examination centers in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and Metro Manila.

Last Sept. 26, the DPRM, under Police Director Lyndon Cubos, held a public opening of the examination kits to extract the answer sheets for submission to NAPOLCOM for checking.

Successful candidates will be appointed to the initial rank of Police Inspector effective March 4, 2019.

“In the selection process for this particular Lateral Entry Program including subsequent recruitment and selection programs, we have reduced human intervention to the barest minimum as an added safeguard to ensure transparency and integrity in recruitment and selection and eliminate possible opportunities for irregular practices of undue influence, favoritism, fraud and corruption,” he said.

Likewise, a fool-proof system of complete background investigation and mandatory requirements such as neuro-psychiatric evaluation and drug testing had been adapted and institutionalized to thoroughly screen all PNP applicants, Albayalde said.

“We are reinforcing our recruitment and selection process to enable us to effectively cope with the projected 2019 annual recruitment program for 10,000 police recruits,” he said.

“My advice to fresh graduates who are aspiring for a career in the police service to start working on their basic documentary requirements and preparations as early as now, to allow sufficient lead time for the recruitment process,” he added.

The PNP, he said, is imposing additional safeguards to ensure transparency and integrity of administrative processes, particularly in recruitment and selection to eliminate possible opportunities for irregular practices of undue influence, favoritism, fraud and corruption.