House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez has asked Interior and Local Government Sec. Eduardo Año to ensure that only honest and dedicated personnel will fill-up the 30,914 vacant positions allocated for his department in the proposed 2022 national budget.
Romualdez, representative of chairman of the House Committee on Rules, said the budget will include allocation for 18,279 unformed policemen; 1,601 civilian Philippine National Police personnel; 5,397 firemen; and 4,533 jail guards.
“You are doing a good job in booting out of service a few bad eggs in the police force. Please continue with this noble mission and keep helping us eradicate corruption and unprofessionalism in public service,” Romualdez told Año.
The Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary paid Romualdez a courtesy call Monday night with his officials after they attended the budget briefing in the House of Representatives for the 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“We are ready to help the PNP in its war against crime. Our only appeal, please see to it only those fit for public service, the honest and dedicated ones, make it to the police force and to the DILG,” Romualdez said.
Año was joined by Undersecretaries Epimaco Densing III and Bernardo Florece, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, and Acting Assistant Sec. Director Sarah Jane Serezo during the courtesy call.
Romualdez noted that more than 76 percent of the 2022 proposed national budget of the DILG (P190.67 billion) will go to the PNP.
The Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP) will have a 10.7 percent share (P26.79 billion) while the other eight agencies comprise the remaining 13 percent share.
“This is in line with President Duterte’s directive to go all-out in the war against crime and illegal drugs. The Philippine National Police needs to intensify law enforcement operations, including military support, to fight criminality, trafficking, and terrorism,” Romualdez said.
“The government is making sure that all forms of criminality are reduced through police presence and law enforcement operations. We are also allocating funds for anti-criminality intelligence, case recording and tracking, detection and investigation services, case filing and arrest, capacity building, operational readiness, and disaster and emergency response,” he added.