Excerpt of PRRD’s speech during PNPA’s 39th commencement exercises

I’ve been mayor of Davao City for 23 years. So my rapport with the police is a little bit closer doon sa Army because the police is under the supervision of the mayor.

So kind of over the years I have a good grasp for the --- or dimension of --- ‘yung lahat na, the persona of the police. Now remember that there are a lot of fighting going on outside of this ground.

I lose three or four policemen a day throughout the country. Kaya nung nagtingin ako sa graduates ngayon sabi ko medyo kulang ito. We will not be able to satisfy the requirements of officers to police the police kung ganito lang kaliit.

And remember that kami, we are getting old, you are the bridging generation. Ako after three years, alis na ako. I don’t know who would be the next president. But certainly matanda na ‘yan. But if the Vice President wins, then you will have a beautiful and a young president in this country.

Ngayon, I’d like also to remind everybody that we are a one nation. That not all the Moro of Mindanao are our enemies. So maybe next time there should be a percentage of the Moro people joining PMA or the PNPA. We need them. As a matter of fact, kailangan talaga natin sila.

And I have seen with my own eyes the experience in the so many battles including Marawi. Many of the Moro people who were soldiers were there and many died for our country.

So we cannot govern this country by just selecting from the other provinces without looking towards Mindanao. And we need officers trained and we need to work with them in Mindanao.

At isali naman natin sila. Not only the Moro. But as a matter of fact, it should be divided among the tribes, Ilocano, Bisaya. That’s ought to be the Philippine National Police.

I hope by the next batch or the next --- the one coming up for this generation, I will have the money to give you to enlist more police officers. President Rodrigo R. Duterte