Fr. Diola tackles importance of ethics as PRO-7 celebrates PNP Ethics Day

Fr. Carmelo Diola, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma’s representative, attends Philippine National Police Ethics Day celebration at the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas headquarters in Cebu City. | Gerard Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines — There is a move to strengthen the ethics subjects in the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Police Training Institute.

Fr. Carmelo Diola, representative of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, said this during the 26th Philippine National Police Ethics Day celebration in Police Regional Office in Central Visayas headquarters this morning, January 6, 2020.

Diola, who is also Barangay Mambaling’s parish priest, was the guest speaker of the event.

He said that aside from the cleansing program of the PNP, the organization was also planning to reform the ethics courses in the academy and training centers.

Diola said this is an important move as ethics is as well vital in doing police work.

“If we do not have ethical orientation in any profession we can have monsters,” said Diola.

He said that ethics could be tied up to values, and this should be more emphasized not only in the police profession but in other professions where they handle keeping order and peace in the community.

He said this could also help them to learn not to abuse the position they had been assigned to.

Police Colonel Ildebrandi Usana, PRO-7 deputy regional director for administrations, said that they would be working closely with the church in relation to improving their services with the values-associated works that would remind the policemen about their responsibilities to the community.

Usana assured that the policemen even when they were only trainees, had already undergone values formation and were instilled with the morals of the organization that they would be required to carry out once they start performing their duties in the community.

He said this then would reflect on the programs created and pursued in their various community and service oriented activities, which would directly fall to the police-community relations (PRC) program of specific stations.

The Children’s Haven of Carbon police station is one of the examples of these programs which draws the police organization closer to the community.

“The police is not only a law enforcer or an anti- crime operative but also a peace keeper, peace builder, community service worker,” said Usana./dbs