Body mass index now a basis for police recruits
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2019 12:55:41 +0000
The body mass index or BMI will now be strictly be used as a basis before a police recruit is allowed to be hired as a member of the Philippine National Police.
PNP chief Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde said that he has directed the leadership of the National Police Training Institute to strictly require police recruits to maintain their body mass index before they graduate from rigid police basic training to become full-fledged police officers.
“This is part of our effort to ensure that all those who would enter the police are not only mentally sound but also physically fit,” said Albayalde.
The body mass index is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Using the metric system, it is computed via dividing a person’s weight expressed in kilogram by a person’s height in meters squared (or multiplying the height by itself) or BMI= kg/m².
If a person’s weight for instance is 60 kilograms and the height is 1.65 meters (five feet and five inches), the BMI is 22.06 which is classified as in a normal weight category.
According to the experts, a BMI less than 18.5 is considered as underweight while those between 18.5 to 24.9 are considered normal. A BMI between 25-29.9 is considered overweight while those who have more than 30 BMI are considered obese.
Police Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, PNP spokesman, said the BMI requirement is part of the physical fitness program of the PNP in an effort to professionalize the organization and attain respect of the people they serve.
Past PNP leaderships have imposed various physical fitness requirements which include having a waistline of not more than 34 or climbing the stairs of a 10-story building. (Aaron Recuenco)