Albayalde to focus on disciplining the police force to improve public perception

Police Director General Oscar D. Albayalde on Wednesday, May 30, said he will focus on disciplining members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in order to improve the public’s perception of the force.
“We want to have a very professional police force,” Mr. Albayalde told reporters.
“This is the main reason kung bakit nakafocus tayo sa internal discipline natin (This is why are focused on the force’s internal discipline,” he explained.
He added: “Dahil ito ang tinitingnan ng ating mga kababayan, yung pagdi-disiplina sa ating mga kapulisan (Because the discipline of our police officers is what the public sees.)”
Mr. Albayalde said one of the major problems of the force is, “merong pulis diyan na porke nakita yung complainant naka tsinelas, gusgusin kung kausapin parang wala lang ganun lang. Pero pag yung complainant naka kotseng maganda, naka bihis ng ano, sir ng sir, maam ng maam (there are officers who belittle complainants for not looking high and mighty while they are attentive to complainants who have a nice car or are dressed well.)”
Quoting Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson, Mr. Albayalde said, “you cannot discipline a nation without a disciplined police force.”
“We want policemen now to be professional. We treat everybody equal,” he said.
He stressed, “If we go for quantity, hindi siya effective (it’s not effective.)”
“We want to institutionalize and want to make this a tradition,” he added.
Asked if the PNP had any new initiatives to gauge public trust, Mr. Albayalde replied, “sa ngayon, yung survey, wala (we do not have a survey for now.)”
He explained, “what we really want is we change and then we ask the public so we can get the reaction of the public.”
On the reports of human rights violations committed by the PNP, Mr. Albayalde said officers are told to “always respect human rights.”
“Respect for human rights is paramount,” he said, but pointed out, “what happens on the ground is beyond our control already.”