299 cops in barangays to help prevent resurgence of insurgency

From the Philippine News Agency (Jun 5, 2024): 299 cops in barangays to help prevent resurgence of insurgency (By Perla Lena)

POLICE IN BARANGAYS. Police officers for the Revitalized Pulis sa Barangay (RPSB) Program are officially deployed to 17 selected barangays in Western Visayas in a ceremony on May 31, 2024. Police Regional Office 6 Regional Director Brig. Gen. Jack Wanky, in an interview on Wednesday (June 5, 2024), said the cops are tasked to know the concerns of barangays where they are assigned and not just focus on peace and order. (Photo courtesy of PRO6)

ILOILO CITY – A total of 299 police officers who completed training under the Revitalized Pulis sa Barangay (RPSB) Program are currently deployed in 17 Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAs) and urban barangays in Western Visayas.

“They are required to conduct environmental scanning and interview families so they will know the concerns of the barangay and not just focus on peace and order. It will continue for six months,” Police Regional Office 6 (PRO6) Regional Director Brig. Gen. Jack Wanky said in an interview on Wednesday.

The program aims to sustain the gains of the Community Support Program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Retooled Community Support Program of local government units.

“This aims to prevent the resurgence of insurgency, insulate unaffected communities from the recovery efforts of the communist terrorist group, and to assist the communities address their peculiar concerns and facilitate in availing the basic services of the government they need to avail,” the regional police said in a statement.

The deployment included one barangay each in Aklan and Antique, two in Iloilo City and Negros Occidental, three in Capiz, and four each in Iloilo province and Bacolod City.

“We have created an oversight committee to assess the performance of 299 cops having an immersion in villages. Weekly, they will visit RPSB teams to determine if they are exercising their mandates. They have a checklist on what to do during their six-month immersion period,” the Region 6 top cop added.

This week, the police officers are expected to pay courtesy calls to barangay and municipal officials to explain their tasks.

The police officers came from the mobile forces who completed the 12-day stringent RPSB training that culminated on April 29.

They were officially deployed through a send-off ceremony last week at Camp Martin Delgado in Iloilo City.

Wanky said there will be training for replacement two months before the six-month tour of duty of the current teams ends while they determine if there is still a need to deploy more.

“We wanted to maximize deployment in identified areas, but due to lack of personnel, we only train enough police officers for that purpose,” he added.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1226277