PRO6 calls for additional peacekeeping volunteers
The Police Regional Office 6 is recruiting more volunteers for its barangay peacekeeping action teams (BPATs) to strengthen the community policing system in Western Visayas.
Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol Jr., police regional director, said around 3,500 BPAT volunteers have already been recruited all over the region but the number is not enough.
Big provinces like Iloilo and Negros Occidental need more, he said.
“The BPAT is a conglomeration of all force multipliers in the community, including barangay tanods and non-government organizations, along with retired police and military personnel. They should not expect any financial remuneration,” he said.
Querol has already directed all provincial and city directors to organize and mobilize sufficient number of BPATs in their respective areas of jurisdictions before the end of the year.
In every barangay, Querol said there must be at least two teams, which have about 20 members.
“In Iloilo City, I am happy there are 100 members and we are also planning to increase the number,” he said.
“The reward of volunteerism in the implementation of the barangay peace keeping operations is peace at home, for our family,” he said.
The creation of the BPATs as a form of community-related policing system can be a solution to lack of policemen.
With the help of BPATs, “policemen can also focus on problems of major concerns.”
The organizing and strengthening of the BPAT is also very timely with the just concluded barangay elections, Querol said.
He cited that the Department of Interior and Local Government only last year “issued a memorandum addressed to all local chief executives being chairmen of peace and order council to allot fund to support the operation of the BPATs.”*PNA
