By Aaron Recuenco The Philippine National Police (PNP) is expected to save huge sums of money in its marksmanship training for highway patrollers after a shooting simulator was donated to its Highway Patrol Group (HPG) Wednesday. This is the first time that the PNP will have a target-shooting machine, courtesy of transportation service company Grab Philippines, according to PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde. The Trooper’s Shooting Simulator will be housed in a training room which will be refurbished with the funding from Grab Philippines. The machine costs about P350,000. While it was a donation to the PNP-HPG, other police units can also use the machine, according to HPG Director Roberto Fajardo. Grab President Brian Cu said the Trooper’s shooting simulator will provide up-to-date training in running after carnappers, robbers and other criminal elements preying on motorists and commuters along the road. “The simulator will provide the HPG troopers with a sense of split-second life or death judgment on the use of force when responding to real and imminent threats that cannot be provided by training from normal shooting ranges,” said Cu. The PNP has been facing problems on the marksmanship skills of its personnel. Several years ago, a National Police Commission official was quoted as saying that majority of policemen could not shoot straight. Policemen, however, said that the main reason for the poor marksmanship was the limited number of firing ranges and supply of bullets to be used in the training. In most cases, some policemen said they had to shoulder the expenses for the purchase of bullets that they would use to improve their shooting skills. The Trooper Simulator Training is expected to provide a solution on the problem at least for HPG personnel since the simulator is a virtual reality-like training facility that provides shooting skills similar to the actual firing of guns. According to Grab Philippines, the simulator also has a video editor and scenario maker to create training settings for the PNP-HPG based on prevailing modus operandi of criminals and threat groups, as some drivers and passengers of transport network companies fall victims to robbery, assault, and carnapping.