PNP ordered to step up training of motorcycle cops

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has ordered the Philippine National Police’s Highway Patrol Group to intensify training of motorcyle-riding policemen to go after criminals.

Apart from addressing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Duterte vowed to go “hard” against criminals in the last two years of his term.

?Duterte directed Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to map out a training module for the police’s motorcycle riding course and how to use it in the fight against criminality.

“We can train the highway patrol. We can train about 30 in one class. We have to increase the mobile capacity of the police and we can buy long motorcycles that can negotiate any obstacle, the ordinary obstacles that you’d find in the streets,” he said.

Duterte, who continues to enjoy a high trust rating, expressed concern over the increase in street crimes while the national strategy against COVID-19 is focused on reopening the economy.

“I really intend to go hard within the last two years of my term, including the criminals,” he said in a taped televised address late Wednesday.

“We have seen an upsurge of holdups, street crimes again because of the liberality being offered by the opening of the economy. And of course, people are now allowed to roam freely and to travel. The most convenient way is really, motor(cycle). Once they kill, they just ride the motorcycle,” Duterte said.

The veteran motorcycle aficionado noted how the police can thwart crimes using motorcycles and allow them access to busy streets and crowded areas.

“This is very hard to control. I understand the nightmare the police are facing on how to control the mobility of the criminal right after committing a crime,” he said, emphasizing how the getaway motorcycle can just zigzag in and out of traffic.