Police commission 45 bomb-sniffing dogs

THE Philippine National Police (PNP) commissioned on Monday, July 2, 45 newly trained explosives detection dogs during a simple ceremony held in Camp Crame in Quezon City.

PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, together with Directorate for Logistics director Jose Ma. Victor Ramos and PNP Explosives and Ordnance Division/K-9 Group director Senior Superintendent Pedro Gabayan, led the commissioning ceremony for the 34 male and 11 female bomb-sniffing dogs as well as the oath taking of their handlers.

Thirteen of the said dogs are Labrador Retrievers while the others were Belgian Malios.

They are named Maximus, Philip, Bagsik, Goode, Paulo, Conan, Tinay, Sadam, Bam, Joko, Luna, Jackie, Bunso, Blue, Rambo, Maui, Baldoc, Lucas, Gambet, Sky, Revo, Inday, Michael, Poncio, Obre, King, Mac, Uno, Maya, Dracco, Bugoy, Bravo, Happy, Rocky, Gina, Mackoy, Joko, Claris, Brigs, Clark, Mucho, Vilma, Jinky, Sakuragi and Billy.

Each dog was acquired for over P500,000 each under the 2017 annual procurement plan amid the government’s anti-criminality and anti-terrorism campaign.

The PNP has 208 K9 units in its inventory which are providing K9 support to operations of PNP units, particularly the PNP Explosive Ordnance Disposal/ K9 Group (EOD-K9) which is responsible for the effective and standardized utilization and development of all the canine teams of the national police agency.

They are also tasked to support investigation being conducted by the PNP and take part in security patrolling particularly in detecting and combating any explosive related incidents.