By Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan – The
Basilan Bantay Bayanihan, a multi-stakeholder group that monitors the
implementation of the Internal Peace and Security Program (IPSP) Bayanihan of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines underwent an orientation on community
policing, recently.
Around thirty participants coming from the
different civil society groups, non-government organizations, some government
line agencies, the military, police and other security sectors, including
women, youth, and religious sectors were gathered for the baseline study on
community policing held at the Querexeta
Formation Center, this city.
The Security Reform Initiative (SRI) who
serves as the national secretariat for Bantay Bayanihan spearheaded the study
with the support of the British Council, and funded by the United Kingdom
Government’s Golden Thread Community Policing Program.
Maribel A. Dano of SRI said that the project
was conceptualized to increase the public’s knowledge on community policing and
come up with a community policing strategy. It added that the project uses a
“bibingka approach” emphasizing that a top-down approach should not be imposed
to communities but rather the communities should be on board at the start of
developing the community policing strategy.
She explained that community policing is a
method of policing based on the joint effort of the community and the police in
working together, identifying and understanding problems, coming up with
solutions to alleviate the problems, and implementing the solution.
“Community policing is not only about crime,
it is about the quality of life of the community because there are issues (like
poverty, access to education, poor health service) that surrounds community
policing. It rests on a shared understanding of the community and the culture,
concerns, and priorities of the community,” Dano said, stressing that it
requires the active participation of the community from the initial stages as
well as in implementing the plan of action.
Through dialogue and workshops, the
participants shared their collective understanding of community policing. Each
agency and organization also shared the programs and activities implemented to
address issues related to peace and order.
The orientation-workshop was the first of the
three waves that the project will unfurl, said Dano, which is awareness,
consultation and feedback.