By Martin Sadongdong
A total of 3,822 candidates have passed the Written Competitive Examination (WCE) part of the Philippine National Police (PNP)'s Lateral Program Entry for Line Officers this year.
It translated to a 53.09-percent passing rate out of the total 7,199 examinees who took the exam in five testing centers nationwide, said PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde in a statement Tuesday.
The final list of passing candidates was released by the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management (DPRM) on Monday.
According to the DPRM, the exams were held last September 23, 2018 in Angeles City, Lucena City, Cebu City, Davao City, and Taguig City.
The candidates were chosen from a pool of Police Non-Commissioned Officers (PNCO) who qualified as registered criminologists with ranks of Police Officer 3 (PO3) to Senior Police Officer 4 (SPO4).
A fool-proof system of the complete background investigation and drug testing will also be conducted to thoroughly screen the applicants, the PNP Chief said.
After passing the written examinations, the successful candidates will have to undergo a Psychiatric Psychological Examination (PPE) under the supervision of the PNP Lateral Entry Board (LEB) and Health Service (HS).
The Health Service is currently bracing for the second phase of the calendar year (CY) 2018 Lateral Entry Program, which will be held on October 20 to November 20, 2018 although they have yet to announce the venues of testing centers for the PPE.
"Our rigid selection process on the Lateral Program Entry will be part of our preventive component of PNP's internal cleansing program," Albayalde said.
"We would like to impose added built-in safeguards to ensure transparency and integrity of administrative processes and to eliminate possible opportunities for irregular practices of under influence, favoritism, fraud, and corruption," he added.
The 2018 Lateral Entry Program for Line Officers aims to fill-up the police force's 4,014 vacancies. The PNP is positive they will achieve the projected 2019 annual recruitment program of 10,000 police recruits.
Applicants who will pass all the examinations will have a new rank of Police Inspector and will take oath on March 4, 2019. It will be administered by Albayalde, the country's top cop.