Lanao CSOs launch baseline
activity on community policing project
By Jun Enriquez
Iligan City (July 30, 2015) –
Community policing is not so much popular in the country and this type of
policing is new to the Filipinos. The community policing in many countries exists
such as United Kingdom (UK), Africa, Canada, United States, and many other
European countries have implemented community policing which defines
transparency and accountability of the police service in the government. Community
policing as a model of policing, and the advantages of this model will tap the
resources of the community, one that forms a “community partnership” to fight
crime.
Community policing is a method
of policing based on the joint effort of the citizen and the police who work
together towards alleviating neighborhood problems. In this type of policing,
police officers and citizens work together to identify problems and resolve
them. The police officer acts as the catalyst, moving the citizens towards
solving their own problems and cooperating for common protection.
Sometime in April this year,
community policing was first introduced in the Philippines by the British
Council through the Golden Thread of the UK to help the future Bangsamoro
government in Mindanao to become effective in the police service. The British Council has
inked an agreement in Davao City with the civil society, through the Security
Reform Initiative (SRI) based in the Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, to
implement the community policing project in selected areas in Mindanao, especially
in the six provinces within the proposed Bangsamoro territory, these are the Lanao
del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Sulu and Basilan.In
every province there are 3-4 municipalities to be selected as model communities
and in each municipality will select a model barangay to implement the
community policing project orientation with an average of 40 participants per
area.
The British Council was
founded in 1934 and the organization has at least 200 offices in over 100
countries around the world and has operated in the Philippines since 1978. The
British Council creates opportunities for the people of the UK and other
countries with the aim of building trust and cultural relationships. The Golden
Thread Funding is coming from the UK government-Official Development
Assistance. The said funding was secured by the British Council towards the
draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) as articulated in Article 11, Section 11, “The
Bangsamoro police shall adopt community policing as the essential mechanism in
maintaining peace and order.”The Golden Thread programmes that weave together the
values and conditions that lead to a more stable, prosperous and ultimately
successful societies.
The SRI is an independent
think tank that constructively and critically engages the security sector in
pushing for key policy and institutional reforms. Guided by inclusivity and
transparency, SRI creates open spaces where practitioners and scholars engage
in serious and candid dialogues on security and peace issues. SRI has conducted
joint researches with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and has also
been entrusted by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
(OPAPP) to handle research on the various peace processes and crucial security
issues that impact on the peace processes.
Community policing has four
phases to follow, the baseline, awareness, consultationand feedback. The SRI
civil society network has implemented the first two phases were already fully
implemented in Lanaodel Norte and Iligan City started in June this year up to
the present. The Consultation phase was still on its implementation stage and the
Feedback phase still to be implemented.
In Lanaodel Norte, the
baseline activity was implemented by the BantayKalilintad (BK) network a
partner of the SRI in Lanao del Norte and Iligan City. Members of the BK are
Pakigdait, Incorporated, Balay Integrated Rehabilitation for Total Human Development,
Inc. (BIRTHDEV), PAILIG Foundation Development, Inc. (PDFI), Institute of Peace
and Development in Mindanao (IPDM), Ranao Disaster Response and Rehabilitation
Action Center (RDRRAC), Civil Society Organization Forum for peace, Inc.
(CSO-FP), PASAKA, Inc., ECOWEB, Inc. and many others. BIRTHDEV, Inc. is the
lead organization represented by Tina Lomoljo,Executive Director, to implement
the community policing project in Lanaodel Norte and Iligan City.
The Baseline activity was the
first phase of the community policing project implemented in three selected
Municipalities ofLanao del Norte, such as Munai, Tagoloan and Rogongon, Iligan
City. Munai and Tagoloan are part of the core territory of the proposed
Bangsamoro and Rogongon is contiguous to the Bangsamoro. The three areas were
selected in terms of culture, the Muslim Majority in Munai, the Christian
majority in Tagoloan and the Lumad majority in Rogongon. There were common
questions answered by the participantsduring the session are as follows: what
is safe community? In your opinion what are the security problemsto have safe
community? Who has the responsibility?and a follow-up question, in what way they
can help to have safe and secure community? The participants in different
venues have similar answers but different context due to different geographical
areas with respect to culture.
Most of the common answers on
safe community shall maintain the peace and order, unity and respect among the
peoples, free from criminals, there is presence of police and militaryto have
safe community. Most of the identified problems are cattle rustling,
carnapping, kidnapping, illegal drugs, killings, “rido” or family feud,
unemployment, poverty. The participants are hopeful that all these problems
will be resolved by the government through the police and military. The
participants believed what they can help to have safe and secure communities is
to report any incidence of crime to the public officials, Barangay officials,
military and police and arrest the
criminals. In Muslim culture they will report it to the Sultan or BaiAlabi and
in the Lumad they will report it to their Datu and Elders. The participants to
ask help from the non-government organization (NGOs) and emphasizing the
citizens’ arrest. The Baseline phase activities on community policing project was
implemented successfully in Lanaodel Norte and Iligan City. With reports and photo by Malyne Gungob.
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