Puno Spells Out Initiatives for LGUs Peace and Order

September 23, 2009

Secretary Ronnie Puno has said that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has put in place a wide gamut of initiatives to further empower local government units (LGUs) and maintain peace and order and public safety as a way to achieve better self-governance and make the Philippines an ideal haven for investments and long-term growth.

Speaking during the DILG Night of the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) on Tuesday night, Puno said that on his watch as DILG chief since 2006, the Department has been carrying out a reform agenda that is geared toward the full empowerment of LGUs so they can adequately respond to the needs of their constituencies.

Puno also served as DILG Secretary from 1999 to 2000, and, previous to that, as official of the Department in various capacities since 1975.

He pointed out, though, that empowering LGUs is not enough to encourage investors to bring their resources at the local level, particularly in the countryside, if the peace and order situation remains unstable, and they cannot be assured of the safety of their investments.

Thus, alongside the reforms for the local government sector, he has also lobbied Malacañang to give the  interior sector comprising the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) a bigger share of the national budget to enhance their capability to protect the citizenry from crime and violence as well as to ensure public safety. 

Among the reform initiatives for LGUs, Puno said,  is to find out ways and implement  measures that will truly empower local chief  executives and give them a more substantial voice in the decision-making process of Government, most especially in the spheres of countryside development and peace and order.

Pointing out that giving LGUs a greater participation in the decision-making process of the national government is “the crux of true grassroots empowerment”,

Puno said “this setup will also avert potential mismatches between the development projects that are being approved in Malacanang, purportedly on behalf of LGUs, and what these local governments actually need in their provinces, cities or municipalities.”

“I have been privileged enough to twice serve our people as secretary of the DILG, where we are constantly reminded of the words of India’s spiritual and political leader Mahatma Gandhi that good government is no substitute for self-government,” Puno said during the MOPC event held at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila in Makati City.

He added: “The delivery of basic services by our LGUs to their respective constituencies indeed requires a major overhaul in public governance. In the best interest of local autonomy and decentralization, our local executives must have a far bigger say in how projects are selected by the national government on behalf of their LGUs.”

Among the steps he has taken, Puno said, was to give up his seat in the National Economic and Development Puno Authority (NEDA) Board in favor of a representative from the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines or ULAP, which is the umbrella organization of all the groups of elective local executives from the provincial down to the barangay levels.

The DILG has also been helping LGUs harness their corporate powers to further empower them, through initiatives such as the MIRACLE program, which stands for Monetization of Internal Revenue Allotment Collectibles for Local Empowerment. 

MIRACLE, which allows LGUs to immediately use their Internal Revenue Allotment or IRA share from national taxes by enabling them to monetize such funds via state-run banks, has given rise to several high-impact development projects at the local level, Puno noted.
 
On the peace and order front, Puno said that on his watch, the PNP was able to increase police visibility  with a total of 15,000 new officers having  been recruited into the PNP and 10,000 more expected to be added to the force by 2010.

“The DILG is working on two other fronts to make sure that the PNP officers have high morale, are inspired and fully equipped to perform their peace and order functions and forcefully engage criminals and other enemies of the state,” Puno said.

Moreover, Puno pointed out that he considers the comprehensive work now being done to protect women and children, such as the establishment of Women and Children Protection Desks in every police station, and at the provincial and regional levels,  as one of the landmark initiatives of the PNP.

“The PNP,” he noted,  “is now building new police stations and engineering offices, acquiring more anti-terrorism gear and equipment, communication equipment and other facilities that are needed to ensure the success of its mission, which is to serve and protect our people.”

“At the DILG, we practice what we preach, and to complement the overall work to protect women and children, we are working hard on making the Department and the agencies it oversees as truly gender-sensitive institutions,” Puno said.

In the PNP, for instance, roughly 10% of the 120,000-strong police force is made up of female officers, Puno noted. In the first half of 2008, the PNP recruited a total of 3,499, of whom 462–or 13%–were female officers. Of the 4,775 recruits sworn in last December 2008, 462–or 13.5%–were female officers.

Of the 128 graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy  (PNPA)  in 2008, 21 were female officers, he said,

Besides the PNP, Puno said the DILG has  also taken steps to modernize the BJMP and BFP through dramatic increases in their budgetary outlays.

He noted that on his watch, , the total DILG budget increased 44% in 2009 to P62.937 billion from just P43.681 billion in 2006.

From P35.196 billion in 2006, the PNP budget rose to P47.268 billion this year. The BFP budget increased from P3.66 billion in 2006 to P6.824 billion this year, while that of the BJMP swelled from P2.246 billion three years ago to P4.192 billion in 2009.

These significant budgetary adjustments, Puno said, allowed the DILG to hire more personnel and provide more benefits for them.

From 111,638 policemen in January 2006,  the DILG expects the PNP’s uniformed personnel to reach 127,234 cops as of July this year.

In the BFP, additional  manpower  is helping  address  the shortage of firefighters, which resulted in an 8.85% increase or 1,272 more in the number of fire officers at the bureau.  From 14,376 fire officers in January 2006, Puno said he expects this number to increase to 15,648 by the end of 2009.

For the BJMP, its budget increases enabled it to add 1,500 more jail officers  from the 7,399  it had three years ago.  Thus, we will have a total of 8,899 jail officers by the end of 2009, Puno said.

In terms of logistics, Puno said the DILG’s additional budget allowed it to increase police mobility, enhance the BFP’s   firefighting capability and  improve the  BJMP’s capability to secure inmates through the:

• Addition of 2,445 new patrol cars;

• Additional of 28 new patrol boats;

• Increase in the number of fire trucks from 1,629 in 2006 to 1,790 in 2009; and

• Increase in the number of prisoners’ vans from 134 in 2006 to 346 in 2009, of which 212 are scheduled to be procured this year.