Police discouraged from dinking in public or face raps — Año
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2019 04:10:14 +0000
THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to discourage its men from drinking in public.
Interior secretary Eduardo Año gave the order on Wednesday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte, during the DILG’s Barangay Summit on Peace and Order in Pasay City, directed the PNP to keep the image of its police clean.
“It was the President himself who said those police officers should not be drinking in bars, pubs, and streets. They will face charges if they violated this,” Año said in Filipino.
The PNP is administered and controlled by the National Police Commission (Napolcom), which is under the DILG.
Año agreed with Duterte’s view that people who see police officers drinking in public may lose their respect and trust.
“It is embarrassing to see police officers drinking in public. The job of the police requires the respect of the people, therefore they must do what it takes to gain and maintain public trust,” he said.
Año added that the public could not have “armed policemen walking around in public reeking of alcohol and not in their best state of mind as it implies lack of discipline among our uniformed personnel.”
This does not mean the DILG is entirely prohibiting police officers from drinking alcohol but this should be done inside their homes or private households.
“How can you respond to an incident if you’re tipsy from drinking? It’s better to just drink in your house in order to prevent any conflicts,” Año said.
Duterte previously ordered all local government officials and police officers to arrest anyone who was drinking in the streets to avoid fistfights and other troubles in public.
A total of 30,187 people in Metro Manila were arrested from June 13, 2018 to January 8, 2019 for drinking in public, according to the report of National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO). ROY NARRA
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