I caught the middle of the consultation of the Committee on Public Order and Safety of the House of Representatives on the “PNP Modernization Bill” with hundreds of members of the Philippine National Police held last Thursday in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
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| 2 Philippine cops tagged in ‘hulidap’ arrested, 7 others hunted PHOTO CREDIT DZRHNEWS.COM |
Major concerns asked by Congressmen Romy Acop, Sam Pagdilao, and Pol Bataoil, who are not only retired police officials but alumni of the Philippine Military Academy, were the following: "
1) If active members of the Philippine National Police wanted that their ranking titles be reverted to the then Philippines Constabulary (PC).
It means a Senior Inspector would be called as Captain, etc.
I asked the non officers who were mostly SP04 (Senior Police Officer-4) who were near my seat if they were amenable that a Police Officer 1 would be called “Constable” while an SP04 with red six stripes and a star in the middle will be called MSGT or Master Sergeant just like in the military. Most of them did not like the idea. “It could not happen because the PNP was created as civilian in nature while those military ranks were created, well, for military purpose,” an SPO4 answered me.
“I thought you don’t want to trade off the SPO-4 or P01 rank because of the word “Officer” attached to it when in the real sense you are not officer like the Inspector or Superintendent (Lieutenant or Lt. Colonel in the military),’ I jocularly told him.
