Ilocos Cops Honed for Counter Terrorism

SPO3 Erlinda Gagaoin receives a special award from PRO-1 director Chief Superintendent Roman Felix in a ceremony at Camp Florendo, La Union on Thursday.

CAMP BGEN OSCAR M FLORENDO – In partnership with the Civil Relations Service (CRS) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) under Colonel Jaevy D. S Resurreccion (GSC) Philippine Army and the Regional Public Safety Battalion 1 (RPSB1) conducted a two day Community Engagement and Information Support Affairs training as part of the capacity building program of Police Regional Office 1 (PRO1) on December 11, 2014.

Fifty  police officers from the RPSB1 and the Provincial Public Safety Companies (PPSC) of Region 1 who participated were all oriented on the endgame required to finally resolve the presence of communist cadres and combatants in the country.

Likewise, they were also given skills-training on engaging stakeholders and undertaking counter-propaganda operations against the reds’ enslaving control and deception. This training emphasizes on competence, performance through service delivery and tactical skills, partnering or people skills and personal effectiveness or accountability.

According to PCSupt. Roman A. Felix, PRO1 Regional Director who initiated the seminar, cross-training is the innovation of this activity since both the AFP and PNP officers shared their best practices and learned  from their past mistakes in the field and embarked on more creative and resourceful means of rescuing the people from the deception of the enemy.
In his message, the Regional Director challenged the PNP participants that countering terrorism is not just the job of the AFP. He reiterated that whether lead or support, the police has a critical role in the fight against insurgents who have accumulated offenses such as murder, extortion, arson and violence against women and children, among others.

PCSupt. Felix further emphasized that the loss of life and limbs are not necessary and the way to win against insurgency is by winning the hearts and minds of the people and that is through effective community engagement of competent and disciplined policeman, one day at a time.


“The way to win over insurgency is through competent law enforcement and this is the best communication message to convince the people that the PNP is here to provide protection against terrorist organizations.” he added.
Other resource speakers in the training that gave emphasis on psychological warfare were P/Senior Supt. Marlou Chan and P/Supt. Eric Noble. Both of these decorated officers have been trained in the U.S for police enforcement and intelligence.