To guarantee the adequacy of policewomen who shall man the woman and children protections desks in every police precincts, Congress has passed on second reading a measure seeking to raise the quota requirement for female officers in the Philippine National Police.
House Bill No. 9059, principally authored by Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, seeks to amend the PNP Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998, specifically Section 58 to increase the existing recruitment quota of 10 percent for lady cops.
The amendment provides the PNP shall reserve 15 percent of its annual recruitment, training and education quota for women, and that the recruitment quota for women shall be increased to 20 percent thereafter.
“Twenty years hence, the present circumstances make it ripe for an increase in the recruitment quota for female members of the PNP uniformed personnel. We are made to rethink this administrative reform in the wake of abuses of male officers against women and children in their custody. It should be the State policy that only female officers should have direct and immediate custody of women and children brought to the police stations,” Pimentel said.
“In other jurisdictions with strong child protection, whenever a minor is involved in an incident, male officers are prohibited from taking custody of the child without the presence of female officers, thereby preventing some abuses,” he added.
