CEBU CITY – The Police Regional Office-Central Visayas (PRO-7) is ready to implement a policy that seeks to regulate tattoos among personnel and would-be policemen.
Police Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of PRO-7 chief Police Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin, said that an inventory of policemen with tattoos in their bodies will be made for the effective implementation of the policy.
Pelare said Memorandum Circular 2024-23 approved on March 19 has a process that has to be followed.
He explained that city and provincial police offices will have to check their personnel who sport visible tattoos.
A policeman with visible tattoos will be asked to execute an affidavit admitting that he sports a tattoo while promising that he will no longer add new ones especially in areas that would be difficult to hide while wearing a uniform.
“What we are going to do here in PRO-7 is to make sure that the policy will be implemented and part of that is inventory,” Pelare said.
Not having a tattoo is actually one of the requisites for those who want to join the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Some of the policemen got their tattoos after they were able to join the organization, Pelare said.
The policy exempts tattoos for aesthetic purposes like eyebrows while prohibited are those associated with extremism, illegal activities, and indecency.
Pelare made it clear that having a tattoo is not bad or the policy is a form of discrimination.
“We would like to emphasize that we are not saying that having tattoos is bad. We are just saying that when you join the PNP, there are strict regulations that we need to follow. When we joined the PNP, there’s a lot of regulations that we followed in accordance with our basic principles that we are trying to maintain in the PNP,” Pelare said.