New PNPA graduates molded to fight insurgents too

By Ronron
March 20, 2007

Aside from dealing with criminal cases, the new graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) for this year are also prepared to deal with the problem of communist insurgency, which was recently delegated as well to the PNP.

PNPA Director Sr. Supt. Balligi Agnanayon Tira said during Tuesday’s media forum at Camp Crame that the 238 members of the PNPA Class of 2007 underwent seminars on the insurgency problem in the country following the authorization given to the PNP to take active role in the internal security operations (ISO) handled traditionally only by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“We have given them seminars on how to approach insurgents. They have to be humane enough to understand the causes of insurgency,” Tira said of the upcoming graduates.

On June 14, 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Executive Order 546 that allowed the PNP to fight actively against the New People’s Army (NPA) upon proper coordination with the AFP.

This came days after she ordered the AFP and the PNP to crush the insurgency movement, which has prevailed in the country for almost four decades now, before she ends her term in 2010.

Tira said the PNPA Class of 2007 will hold their graduation rites this coming Thursday at the PNPA headquarters in Silang, Cavite.

Of the batch, 197 will join the PNP, 19 will go to the jail bureau, and the remaining 22 will join the fire protection bureau, said Tira.

A PNPA graduate immediately gets the rank of an Inspector.

This year’s graduates include 26 female cadets, two of whom made it to the Top 10 of the class.

The 7,100 strong NPA has being waging guerilla warfare in the countryside in the last 38 years./DMS