TO SERVE AND PROTECT. At least 80 rookie police officers take their oath during the 1st Cycle Attrition Recruitment Program at the Police Regional Office-Soccsksargen headquarters in General Santos City on Monday (Nov. 14, 2022). The new cops will be assigned to police field offices across the region following their six-month mandatory training on public safety at the police’s regional training center. (Photo courtesy of PRO-12)
TACURONG CITY – Eighty police recruits took their oath of office Monday as new members of the Soccsksargen (Region 12) police force.
Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, the Police Regional Office (PRO)-12 director, said the rookie cops will still undergo the six-month mandatory training on public safety at the police’s Regional Training Center in General Santos City designed for non-commissioned police officers.
“This is to provide them with the basic knowledge and skills in community policing, administration, combat operation, and tactics,” Macaraeg said of the new police officers following their oath taking at the PRO-12 grounds.
He said the batch will also hurdle another six months of immersion or field training that involves experience in patrol, traffic control, and investigation works.
Macaraeg urged the new police officers to be loyal to their sworn duty, and be devoted to providing public service.
“Out of 296 applicants, only 80 of you have made it, so don’t waste what you have endured,” he said.
Security summit
The acceptance of the new cops came following the PRO-12 Transportation Security Summit 2022, also in General Santos City, over the weekend.
The summit, presided over by the Department of Transportation (DOTr), was attended by police, military, coast guard, regional ports’ officials, and bus firms representatives.
The summit came following the Nov. 6 bombing of a Yellow Bus Line (YBL) unit here that left one passenger dead and 11 injured, including the alleged bomb courier who lost his right after the explosion.
Macaraeg said the summit was organized to address the recurring atrocities involving public vehicles, noting the three bomb attacks on YBL buses alone this year.
He said a revamp in the current security measures on public transportation in the region was discussed at the summit. (PNA)
