Former rebel police applicants with pending criminal cases need to be cleared of the charges as part of the Philippine National Police (PNP) recruitment requirements, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Lord Villanueva said on Monday, Sept. 25.
In a press briefing, Villanueva said ex-rebel applicants from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) will have to deal with these charges and should disclose beforehand the pending cases they are facing when applying for slots in the police force.
He noted that the process for the ex-rebel police applicants are the same with the regular Philippine National Police (PNP) applicants, but leeways are given to the former reds in terms of age and educational requirements.
Villanueva’s response came after National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya raised the issue and inquired if ex-rebels applying in the police force will be exonerated from their pending criminal cases as part of the PNP reintegration program.
Villanueva assured that the DILG is conducting stringent background and character investigation on the ex-rebels to ensure that they are qualified to join the police force.
The DILG official added that the department has applied the ‘nameless/faceless recruitment process’ where all the ex-rebel applicants are provided with quick response (QR) codes.
He stated that the recruitment process involves body mass index check, physical examination (push-ups, sit-ups, three kilometer run), psychological examination, character/background investigation, interviews, medical check-up and drug test.
In context, Villanueva said ‘parang dumadaan sila sa butas ng karayom (they are somewhat threading the eye of the needle)’ for them to hurdle the recruitment process with roughly a ‘10 to 20 percent’ passing rate.
Villanueva noted that the first batch of applicants is in the middle of the six-month training process while the second batch started its training a few weeks ago and will undergo a similar six months training period.
In the second batch, Villanueva disclosed that 100 out of around 700 applicants have advanced to the psychological/ psychiatric tests.
He explained that the DILG has implemented the stringent recruitment process as the successful ex-rebel applicants will be tasked to provide the ‘sacred duty of protecting public safety’ like any police officer.
Since the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has provided the DILG with a 400 quota of recruits, Villanueva said that there is a possibility that a third batch of recruitment process is in the offing.
He lamented that previous applicants who failed to make the grade may still re-apply in the police force based on the PNP requirement regulation which allows up to three times of reapplication.
The ex-rebels who still failed to meet the PNP standard requirement may apply for other jobs in the local government units (LGUs), farming sector and national government.
“These options (other job opportunities) are all available (for the other applicants),’’ Villanueva noted.
Aside from the PNP reintegration program, Villanueva said that the government is geared on promoting economic development in the Bangsamor Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as inter-government boards like the inter-governmental energy and sustainable boards will be established.
In hindsight, Villanueva explained that the goal is to bring investment in the region with the DILG monitoring the projects implemented by the municipal, barangay and provincial councils to ensure that they are aligned with the programs of the government.
Villanueva noted that ‘in a nutshell’ the DILG will assist BARMM in its economic development and initiatives.