National Police Commission 10 hosted Kapihan sa PIA on crime prevention discussion, Sept. 1, 2025, with Napolcom 10 Regional Director Ramon dela Cruz (right), Napolcom 10 Technical Support Head Sittie Hafsah Azis (center), and Cagayan de Oro City Police Office Deputy Director Colonel Ernesto Daing (left). PIA-10’s Jan Albert Arańa was the moderator. [TMMT photo]
TheMonitorMindanaoToday.c0m | Police-population below ideal ratio
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Ideally, there should be one police officer for every 500 persons in a locality to ensure crime prevention, law enforcement, and maintenance of peace and order — a standard set by law over three decades ago.
But the police-population ratio in this city is about 1:700 at nighttime and would even reach 1:1,000 during the day, Colonel Ernesto Daing, deputy director of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO) said in a Kapihan sa PIA on Monday, September 1, at the National Police Commission (Napolcom) 10 office.
With a little over a thousand strength, the PNP Regional Office 10 at Camp Vicente Alagar deployed an augmentation force to COCPO for the city’s month-long Feast of Saint Augustine crowd-drawing events that ended on Sunday, August 31.
At the regional level, the police-population ratio of Northern Mindanao is near the desired proportion at 1:522, Napolcom 10 Regional Director Ramon Dela Cruz said. “This should not be taken as basis for police visibility,” he said.
Region 10, he said, is better off in police-population ratio compared to other regions across the country, having been previously assigned Napolcom 12 (Central Mindanao) and Napolcom 5 (Bicol) where figures exceed the standard set under Section 27 of Republic Act No. 6975 which created the PNP.
“Crime prevention is everybody’s concern,” Dela Cruz said even as he underscored what inter-agency coordination can do in optimizing resources and respective fields of expertise, more so with the support of the local governments and the communities.
COCPO, Daing said, has been performing relatively well—particularly in the implementation of the five-minute response time — because of the support from the city government through Mayor Rolando “Klarex” Uy who provided police patrol cars.
He said the required five-minute response time greatly improved COCPO’s police visibility, but there were instances of delays in the submission of reportorial requirements because administrative tasks must be set aside. “Some resort to multi-tasking,” he added.
Lately, Napolcom and law enforcement agencies are confronted with the challenge of keeping abreast with the latest communication technologies “criminal elements continue to adopt with alarming speed,” a portion of a message for the NCPW reads.
Lawyer Sittie Hafsah Azis, Napolcom 10’s technical services division, said law enforcement agencies must have the technologies, the training, and the system that are needed in crime prevention, aside from community service-oriented policing (CSOP) system.
Napolcom 10 has been spearheading the National Crime Prevention Week (NCPW) celebrations, now on its 31st year, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 461.
Lectures on crime prevention have been set in Oroquieta City and Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, and an inter-agency exhibit can be viewed at the 5th Level of SM Downtown Premier on September 2 and 3. (Uriel Quilinguing/TMMT)
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