ILOILO City – The provincial and municipal governments of Iloilo and Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) agreed to implement a joint peace and order initiative called Community and Service-Oriented Policing (COPS).
A memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed on Wednesday at Casa Real de Iloilo (old provincial capitol).
Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. represented the provincial government while Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, the IPPO as its director.
Twenty-two municipal mayors also signed the MOA, plus Atty. Joseph Celis, director of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) in Region 6.
Defensor said LGUs and IPPO must work together in keeping Iloilo peaceful and safe.
One practical step LGUs could do, he said, is support the fuel requirements of the local police for regular patrolling work.
On the other hand, Defensor said, the police could help enforce LGU programs and campaigns such as against rabies.
Napolcom Region 6 recently issued a memorandum urging provincial city police directors to forge cooperation covenants with LGUs in line with the observance of July as Police Community Relations Month.
“If we have good police-community partnership, half of our work is done,” said Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director, recently.
Police-community relations (PCR) was often “seen as the least important among the quad-staff but it is actually equally important as the police’s intelligence, operations and investigation offices…This is why we engage communities in our projects,” he stressed.
According to Bulalaco, one police program that needed community support was the recently launched “Tohang Kontra Ginadumili-an nga Pusil” – a campaign against loose firearms./PN
