Cotabato City gets 117 new cops
Local News • 15:05 PM Wed Mar 7, 2018
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By:
April Piquero/NDU-BAComm3
Cotabato City police on patrol at night in the city to keep residents safe. (courtesy Senior Supt. Rolly Octavio)
COTABATO CITY -- One hundred seventeen new police
officers are now in Cotabato City to augment the city’s current police force.
The new police officers were formally
presented to City Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi and other city officials
by Police Regional Office 12 director S/Supt. Marcelo Morales during the
Cotabato City Peace and Order Council Meeting held at SouthSeas Complex
function hall.
Composed of 17 police supervisors and
100 candidates, these persons in uniform are to undergo six months of
on-the-job training in their assigned stations to help the local police
officers in implementing traffic rules and regulations, conduct patrols, and to
safeguard the peace and order in the community.
The augmentation force helps improve the
police to population ratio in the city which is one of the factors that affect
the working efficiency of the local police force. Recommendations to increase
the police recruitment quota of the Cotabato City Police Office (CCPO) and to
send more personnel for skills enhancement training were also presented during
the peace and order council meeting.
Despite the low police to population
ratio, the CCPO with the support of the local government and the cooperation of
barangay officials and other sectors in the city was able to record a drop in
the city’s crime rate by 46 percentin 2017, the largest decrease in the whole region
to date. Because of this accomplishment, Cotabato City has been acknowledged
as the safest city in Region XII. (April Piquero/NDU-BAComm3)