By Aaron Recuenco
Police commanders have been warned that they will be immediately sacked from their posts if a single case of communist rebel attack and indiscriminate firing in relation to New Year revelry occurs in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
Philippine National Police (MANILA BULLETIN)
Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan, the deputy chief for Operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the implementation of the one-strike policy will be effective Monday, a day after the highest security alert status was declared for police forces in Luzon and the Visayas.
"On indiscriminate firing that would result to injury and deaths, the one strike policy will strictly apply to all police commanders and chiefs of police who would fail to take appropriate actions to solve these cases within 24 hours," said Cascolan in a press briefing on Monday at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
"Our ultimate target is to reduce the 33 incidents of indiscriminate firing and 12 cases of stray bullet injuries last year to zero this Christmas season," he added.
Cascolan said the same policy applies to communist rebel attacks, given the expected escalation of attacks in the days leading to the founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines on Dec. 26.
The CPP anniversary usually comes with rebel attacks on government forces, with the police the usual target.
Cascolan said the implementation of the one-strike policy would compel police commanders to intensify security measures in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
"They should know what is going on in the communities under them in order to avert incidents like these," Cascolan said.
He cited a case in 2017 where a police station was caught off guard during a rebel attack. During the probe, it was discovered that the rebels had been holed up in the houses near the police station a few days before the attack.
In the case of indiscriminate firing, Cascolan said police commanders should intensify community partnership in order to identify people in the barangay who possess loose firearms.
He said in most cases, indiscriminate firing involves unlicensed guns.