Puno to Lead Oathtaking of Cavite Barangay Peacekeeping Teams

September 18, 2009

TRECE MARTIRES CITY—Secretary Ronnie Puno of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will swear in tomorrow (Sept. 20)  as members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Teams (BPATs) some 5,600 volunteers from the province of Cavite  during simple oathtaking rites to be held at the provincial capitol here.

The 5,600 new BPAT members come from the Barangay Tanod brigades of Cavite’s 826 barangays and the province’s labor and agriculture sectors.

Also expected to attend the event are Cavite Gov. Erineo Maliksi and other local government executives of the province.

Puno had earlier administered the oath to a total of 32,000 BPAT recruits from Manila, Zamboanga del Sur and various provinces in Luzon. Of this number, 13,600 BPAT members are from Pangasinan; 6,500 are from Ilocos Norte; 10,000 from Manila; and 2,000 from Zamboanga del Sur.

BPAT members, Puno said,  will not be given firearms unlike the police auxiliaries who are tasked to reinforce the Philippine National Police (PNP) in their campaign against crime, insurgency  and terrorism.

Puno said these peacekeeping teams are similar to the Neighborhood Watch organized in other countries, which assists authorities in the implementation of its crime prevention programs by reporting potential peace and order problems to village or police officials. .

“The job of our BPATs is just to observe and prevent any crime from happening. If they see a potential problem, they will endorse it to the barangay. If the barangay watchmen cannot handle the situation, then police assistance will be sought,” Puno said.

Under the PNP’s Letter of Instruction 22/09, police  units shall create  Barangay Peacekeeping Operatives or BPKO in their respective areas of responsibility through the formation of Barangay Peacekeeping Action Teams or BPATs.

With volunteers coming from various sectors in the community, the BPATs will be under the supervision and control of the lowest PNP unit in the locality known as the police community precincts.

BPATs are different from the barangay tanods because their functions are limited to assisting in crowd control during events, information gathering, reporting about lawless elements and suspicious characters in their respective localities, and providing support in relation to communication and information dissemination for anti-drug drives and other anti-crime campaigns.

They will report to local PNP within their area of jurisdiction but will be supervised by their barangay captains.