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Friday, March 29, 2024

Another anti-drug super body

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Another anti-drug super body"Why not strengthen and improve existing units?"

 

 

Another super body within the PNP is being planned to take charge of anti-drug operations. This is obviously because of the ninja cops controversy. But is there really a need for another super body?

There is already separate unit within the PNP that is handling anti-drug operations. There is also already the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency which is supposed to be the super body. Another in the PNP might just complicate things. Forming another super body can also be construed as an indication that the state of affairs existing within the PNP is not going very well. For one, there is already a PNP specialized anti-drug unit in the PNP. Will this super body take over the duties and functions of this anti-drug unit?

A recent report released by the PNP mentions the number of police personnel being subjected to a variety of disciplinary actions ranging from dismissal, suspension, demotion, and many other punishments. Although this shows the seriousness of the PNP in addressing disciplinary problems, the number of personnel being disciplined in relation to the total strength of the PNP, which is about 190,000 is big.

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Instead of creating super bodies, why not just strengthen and improve existing units like providing these units with enough funds and equipment so that these units can function more efficiently? Better training, selection, and supervision of personnel assigned to these units would help. After all, personnel assigned to super bodies are exposed to the same temptations as those in assigned to existing units.

Organizing super units is, therefore, no guarantee that these units will end up better than existing units. I know that whoever will be chosen as the next chief of the PNP, that person would like to leave a positive legacy before fading into the sunset. But given the length of time that one stays at the helm, it is hard to accomplish much. The best that one can do is simply start a process of reform that will hopefully be followed by the next chief or perhaps pass a law that fixes the term of the Chief, PNP to do away with this revolving door system. This way, anyone appointed as the chief of the PNP will have time to accomplish something of value.

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A few weeks ago, President Duterte said that it may be difficult or almost impossible to stop hazing. With the recent death of cadet Darwin Dormitorio in the Philippine Military Academy due to hazing, one would think that this brutal practice would at least take a pause but a recent media report is saying that this is not the case.

An act of hazing was apparently caught on video at the academy a couple of days ago even as seven cadets are being charged together with several AFP officers for the death of cadet Dormitorio.

Maybe President Duterte is right in his observation, after all. Hazing seems to be so ingrained in the PMA ethos that it cannot be stopped anymore. But there must be solution to this problem. If we cannot find it here, we must look elsewhere at how other countries were able to stop the practice.

Two countries come to mind. Australia and the United Kingdom both have military colleges that train prospective officers. The one in Australia is popularly known as Duntroon which is located in Canberra and the one in the United Kingdom is called Sandhurst. Both used to offer four-year courses very much like what is being done in the PMA. But this is not the case anymore. In both institutions, officer training is now only one year.

What is done is that prior to going to the military college, candidates are sent to universities to earn civilian degrees and when this is completed, that’s when the candidates report to the military college for one full year of military training before being commissioned as officers in the army. In both countries, a university degree only takes three years. If one wants to spend four years in the university, that individual will earn an honors degree. Both countries have come to the conclusion that an individual does not need to spend four years of military training in order to become an officer. When this was done, hazing virtually stopped and in addition, both governments were able to save a lot of money.

In our case, the government is currently maintaining about 1,000 cadets at the PMA and the government spends around P2.4 million to train one individual to become an officer. If we follow what the two countries did, the government stands to save quite a bit of money and also get rid of hazing. This is because there will be no senior cadets making the lives of those students miserable while training to become officers. Only regular military instructors will be with the students. This was actually tried before at the PMA when another cadet died because of hazing.

What happened then was Marine drill instructors were brought to train incoming plebe cadets so that these cadets will not have any contacts with senior cadets. Unfortunately, this was I believe done for only one year. The following year, it was back to the old practice. As they say, change is inevitable but it is really up to the entire Armed Forces leadership composed of graduates from the PMA whether they are really serious in reforming the school. The school, as they must surely know, is in need of change to meet the new challenges. What is needed now are young officers who are trained to think and make mature decisions. In other words, we need a new breed of officers.

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