Dengue formula sparks reforms
While dengue is a dreaded disease and often deadly to many, acting National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) regional director PBGen. Debold Sinas used it as a model on how to run his command.
“There is no medicine for dengue, but you can get better.
You can recover: How? You infuse good (new) blood to expel the bad blood. You process blood because you no longer have antibodies,” Sinas said in the Daily Tribune’s “Straight Talk.”
“That’s how I want to do it here in Manila. Here, the number of good cops is dwindling because they have been eaten up by the system. So, let’s get rid of the bad ones and infuse good ones from outside,” added the official.
According to Sinas, there is no shortage of good policemen outside of Manila, particularly in his previous posts in Regions 7 and 8, and that it’s time for them to showcase their wares away from the provinces.
“Let’s replace the rotten ones with cops who have never been assigned in Manila so that the bad ones won’t infect the others,” Sinas asserted.
“That’s why I said it’s like dengue. Yes, therea is no medicine for that, but you can definitely recover and get better. We need to infuse new blood. Bring them to NCR, but of course, with proper vetting,” he added.
He went on by stressing that he would rather have men working under him who are from police commands in the provinces, than have the NCRPO headquarters full of erring policemen under investigation and doing nothing but still regularly receiving their salaries.
The method also involves removing the bad eggs so that they will not infest the good policemen while getting fresh blood from other regional units, according to Sinas.
New insights
Sinas said fresh initiatives are introduced, whenever police officials are given the chance to occupy posts other than in their comfort zones.
For instance, to promote cultural sensitivity towards Muslim athletes, Sinas who had long been assigned in Central Visayas and is a native of Butuan City, deployed Muslim police officers in various events of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Sinas said the decision to tap cops who practices Islam resulted from the continuous dialogues with organizers who mentioned such requests from delegates from Islamic countries.
He said aside from the sports venues, the Muslim cops were also deployed in billeting areas of the athletes.
Among the predominantly Muslim countries which participated in the biennial sporting event are Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Cultural sensitivity
“This is in response to the Muslim in Metro Manila and practice cultural sensitivity. The deployed policemen wore Muslim attires (head gear or called tagiyah for male while for female wearing traditional Arabian garb such as the hijab and the jilbab is also commonly worn). At least, (if) additional Muslim people are deployed, they are knowledgeable of the faith and have a good command of English. This is (to enhance) cultural sensitivity towards them,” Sinas said.