Bacolod police is best anti-riot company

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) has earned the bragging rights as best Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) company in Western Visayas.

The BCPO was declared over-all champion during the Police Regional Office-6’s 1st CDM Challenge held last May 24, at the parade grounds of the PRO-6 headquarters at Camp Delgado in Iloilo City.

BCPO's anti-riot police company bested eight other CDM companies and will represent Western Visayas in the national competition.

Declared first runner-up was the CDM company of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB), while second runner-up was Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO).

For Senior Superintendent Remus Zacarias Canieso, PRO-6 chief of the regional directorial staff, all participants have done their best, but there should only be one champion.

The competition also rated the CDM (or anti-riot) capabilities or skills of the Aklan Police Provincial Office (APPO), Antique PPO, Capiz PPO, Guimaras PPO, Iloilo PPO, and Negros Occidental PPO. Each company has 136 participants: 95-man CDM contingent and 41 support personnel.

Canieso said the national police headquarters had directed to conduct CDM competition in every regional police offices nationwide. It is aimed to assess and test the operational readiness, equipage, competency and capability of every CDM in dealing with and responding to certain scenarios.

The competition gave each CDM different situations and made to plan on how to contain it. Different anti-riot police contingents were made to respond to scenarios such as protest actions against the visit of VIPs, conduct of Senate inquiries, stand-off with rallyists, and even hostage-taking.

The evaluation consisted of three phases, the first of which was for graded inspection on the completeness of CDM composition and support personnel, uniforms, and equipment. The winner in this stage was Iloilo PPO.

The second phase ws the demonstration of the eight CDM formations, which was won by RMFB-6.

The third phase, in which every contingent demonstrate its capability on scenario-based problems taken from several situations, was won by the Negros Occidental PPO.

Other awards at stake was the best uniform, the top prize of which was taken by the Aklan PPO. At second was the Iloilo City PO, while Iloilo PPO was third.

Those who failed to get any award would be trained further, said Canieso, who added that there was no real threat on the ground, but the CDM competition was still conducted. "There's nothing wrong with being prepared," he said.