Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Manila’s Finest Out to Regain Old Glory
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STANDING next to the Western Police District (WPD) Headquarters in Manila is a white and blue building, a monument to the city’s proud history and fitting tribute to the city’s “finest” policemen.
Three decades after it closed in 1971, the Manila Police Academy was reopened early this year to revive the police force”s flagging morale and reinstate its “glorious past,” according to Chief Insp. Alejandro Yanquiling, Jr., in-charge of curriculum development and planning office.
“The academy was originally conceived in 1992 as a formal training center for police recruits,” Yanquiling said.
“With the Philippine National Police s training camps performing that function, the academy’s main vision would be to provide in-house and specialized training for all policemen in the district, regardless of rank,” he said.
Yanquiling explained that Manila policemen, who had been called “Manila’s Finest,” could use additional and continuous training to live up to that claim.
The academy official, also the WPD Museum curator and head of the district’s Task Force Galugad, said the Manila Police s beginnings went back to about a century ago.
“The Manila Police Department’s duties then covered the entire country,” Yanquiling said. He said member of the MPD, then composed mostly of Americans, were deployed to different areas in the country.
In 1992, then Manila Police chief John W. Green established the first training school for recruits. Newly appointed policemen had to take a prescribed course before being assigned to the field.
Yanquiling said training at the old academy, initially located at the Bagumbayan Police Station before being relocated at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, lasted 18 months.
“Now it only takes four months to complete the police basic course,” Yanquiling said. Back then, rookies had their own field training officers (FTO), experienced lawmen who left no room for error.
“During that time, a corporal was considered a god by the rookies,” Yanquiling said, grinning. “The FTOs made sure they trained the new policemen the right way so they would do their jobs honorably.”
Yanquiling also said Manila policemen had a “bible” which they knew by heart. “It was a thick little booklet containing rules and regulations,” he said. Violations of the police’s codes of conduct could mean automatic dismissal.
Yanquiling added, “As a result, the Manila police were looked up to by everyone, men in uniform who were dignified and honorable.” Hence, they were called Manila’s Finest, just a New York City’s policemen are called its “Finest.”
With the academy’s reopening, Manila police officials led by WPD director Chief Supt. Pedro Bulaong hope to revitalize the force.
Yanquiling said they would require all personnel to undergo specialized training to improve their skills.
“Even if you are the chief or district director and you belong to the command group, you will be required to attend training,” he stressed.
Yanquiling, with Special Training Unit chief Senior Insp. Wilfredo Natividad will also try to resolve at the academy problems with policemen transferred to the city from other areas.
They encounter problems when newly reassigned policemen “bungle” the work for lack of knowledge of basic ordinances and decorum.
“Manila Mayor Lito Atienza has often been an unfortunate victim of these untrained policemen,” Yanquiling said.
He said a rookie policemen last week shone his flashlight on Atienza’s face, not recognizing the city mayor. Yanquiling said two policemen at the Baywalk area also did not recognize the mayor, mistakenly referring to him as “pare.”
“We try to solve this problem with the orientation course for reassigned policemen,” he said adding that, aside from geography and lessons on courtesy, the policemen would also undergo a special “radio dispatcher’s course” to polish their diction while using police equipment.
Natividad, in a separate interview, said all their personnel would undergo explosives seminars, firearms proficiency, narcotics training and other related topics.
“Guest lecturers from the prosecutor’s office would also talk about the proper way to conduct investigations (so) their cases would not be dismissed upon reaching the courts,” Natividad said.
May 28, 2005, Margaux C. Ortiz, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Proceed to Best of Pinoys
Three decades after it closed in 1971, the Manila Police Academy was reopened early this year to revive the police force”s flagging morale and reinstate its “glorious past,” according to Chief Insp. Alejandro Yanquiling, Jr., in-charge of curriculum development and planning office.
“The academy was originally conceived in 1992 as a formal training center for police recruits,” Yanquiling said.
“With the Philippine National Police s training camps performing that function, the academy’s main vision would be to provide in-house and specialized training for all policemen in the district, regardless of rank,” he said.
Yanquiling explained that Manila policemen, who had been called “Manila’s Finest,” could use additional and continuous training to live up to that claim.
The academy official, also the WPD Museum curator and head of the district’s Task Force Galugad, said the Manila Police s beginnings went back to about a century ago.
“The Manila Police Department’s duties then covered the entire country,” Yanquiling said. He said member of the MPD, then composed mostly of Americans, were deployed to different areas in the country.
In 1992, then Manila Police chief John W. Green established the first training school for recruits. Newly appointed policemen had to take a prescribed course before being assigned to the field.
Yanquiling said training at the old academy, initially located at the Bagumbayan Police Station before being relocated at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, lasted 18 months.
“Now it only takes four months to complete the police basic course,” Yanquiling said. Back then, rookies had their own field training officers (FTO), experienced lawmen who left no room for error.
“During that time, a corporal was considered a god by the rookies,” Yanquiling said, grinning. “The FTOs made sure they trained the new policemen the right way so they would do their jobs honorably.”
Yanquiling also said Manila policemen had a “bible” which they knew by heart. “It was a thick little booklet containing rules and regulations,” he said. Violations of the police’s codes of conduct could mean automatic dismissal.
Yanquiling added, “As a result, the Manila police were looked up to by everyone, men in uniform who were dignified and honorable.” Hence, they were called Manila’s Finest, just a New York City’s policemen are called its “Finest.”
With the academy’s reopening, Manila police officials led by WPD director Chief Supt. Pedro Bulaong hope to revitalize the force.
Yanquiling said they would require all personnel to undergo specialized training to improve their skills.
“Even if you are the chief or district director and you belong to the command group, you will be required to attend training,” he stressed.
Yanquiling, with Special Training Unit chief Senior Insp. Wilfredo Natividad will also try to resolve at the academy problems with policemen transferred to the city from other areas.
They encounter problems when newly reassigned policemen “bungle” the work for lack of knowledge of basic ordinances and decorum.
“Manila Mayor Lito Atienza has often been an unfortunate victim of these untrained policemen,” Yanquiling said.
He said a rookie policemen last week shone his flashlight on Atienza’s face, not recognizing the city mayor. Yanquiling said two policemen at the Baywalk area also did not recognize the mayor, mistakenly referring to him as “pare.”
“We try to solve this problem with the orientation course for reassigned policemen,” he said adding that, aside from geography and lessons on courtesy, the policemen would also undergo a special “radio dispatcher’s course” to polish their diction while using police equipment.
Natividad, in a separate interview, said all their personnel would undergo explosives seminars, firearms proficiency, narcotics training and other related topics.
“Guest lecturers from the prosecutor’s office would also talk about the proper way to conduct investigations (so) their cases would not be dismissed upon reaching the courts,” Natividad said.
May 28, 2005, Margaux C. Ortiz, Philippine Daily Inquirer
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