RES GESTAE
Insanity
(First of two parts)
Lateral entry is now a fad in the Philippine National Police.
To the unfamiliar, lateral entry is one mode of acquiring a police commissioned officer (PCO) status, especially for the rank-and-file personnel.
Two positions are at stake in the Lateral Entry Program: technical positions and line officer positions. However, the latter is “more” popular of the two positions.
Technical line positions (for lawyers, doctors, engineers, psychologist, etc.) have limited slots while line officer positions get the lion share of the quota during recruitment.
This must be the reason for many police non-commissioned personnel who enroll in a short-term Criminology course.
License in Criminology is the basic requirement in applying for Line Officer positions. In fact, it becomes the “magic” element in the PNP Lateral Entry Program.
Last year, University of La Sallete started offering a one-year Criminology course for in-service police personnel. As a result, PNP personnel from as far as Visayas and Mindanao fly in to Camp Crame, where classes are held for the purpose, to avail the program. The tuition fee for this shortened course is about forty thousand pesos. Add air fare, board and lodging and food allowances to it (take the case of students from Visayas, for example) and you can just imagine how expensive the degree is.
Recently, University of Iloilo makes the course even shorter by opening a five-month Criminology equivalency course . The tuition fee is relatively the same with that of ULS’s, but the classroom is nearer to home. This is an opportunity to many police personnel in the region who wish to join the fold of lateral entrants.
These universities seem to respond the need for balance in the pyramidal structure of the PNP rank profile. They make it more doable for many police personnel the hurdles in having a degree and later a license in Criminology.
The PNP Directorate for Personnel, Human Resource and Doctrine Development announced recently the vacuum in the ranks of Police Inspector and Police Senior Inspector; the reason for the opening of Lateral Entry Program.
This inspires more and more rank-and-file police personnel to a get a degree and license in criminology - the easiest way to get into the Lateral Entry Program.
But, this writer contends: this is not a solution. This is plain insanity.