GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 Sept) — The Police Regional Office (PRO) 12 has hired an initial 65 non-uniformed personnel (NUP) to augment the administrative operations of police units in the region.
Senior Insp. Aldrin Martin Gonzales, PRO-12 public information officer, said they are currently finalizing the deployment of the newly-hired NUPs, who are tasked to relieve police officers of various administrative work or functions.
He said the 65 NUPs are part of the initial quota of 263 that was earlier approved by the Philippine National Police (PNP) central office for Region 12.
Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao) comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
Gonzales said the new NUPs are assigned utility, radio operator and administrative aide items.
He said 19 of them will be distributed evenly to the police headquarters and police stations in Cotabato City.
The 46 other NUPs will be assigned in police stations and offices in this city, Sarangani and South Cotabato, he said.
Gonzales said the NUPs play a vital role in police work as they are the ones who are in charge of the administrative matters of the organization.
“These new NUPs will help relieve our uniformed policemen of administrative tasks or duties and eventually allow them to concentrate mainly on operational matters,” he said in a statement.
Gonzales explained that the hiring of the NUPs is part of the Integrated Transformation Program-Performance Governance System (ITP-PGS) introduced by PNP Director General Alan Purisima.
He said a key component of the ITP-PGS program is the implementation of reforms in terms of the staffing pattern of the PNP.
He cited studies conducted by the PNP central office that police presence in public areas “greatly contributes in the lowering of crime incidents and improves police and community relations.”
“To ensure that we provide quality service to the people, all police officers previously assigned in offices were redeployed to the streets and police boxes,” he said.
Early this year, the PNP announced an additional quota of 7,439 NUPs for regional offices in the country. (MindaNews)