Director General Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), urged yesterday the sharpshooters in the police service to share their marksmanship skills to other policemen to avoid collateral damage, especially in the on-going anti-drugs war.
“The best of the best shooters (in the PNP) should share their skills. They should share their ability to other policemen in their respective police stations for them to improve their marksmanship skills,” said dela Rosa.
Dela Rosa highlighted the need for the cops to have a good shooting capability in order to prevent civilians being shot in clash with policemen.
The marksmanship skills, he said, is very important especially for policemen assigned in urban areas.
“If there would be encounter in highly-populated areas, we could prevent collateral damage, or those unintended targets that might be hit during the armed encounter,” said Dela Rosa.
The Chief PNP’ s comment came amid cases of civilians either being killed or wounded during drug raids and clashes with suspected drug pushers and users.
The recent incident was in Maguindanao on Wednesday when police and military forces effected a drug raid in Rajah Buayan town where a woman and her six-year-old son were killed.
Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao police, said another one was killed while two others were wounded.
He identified the fatalities as Normina Tantong and her son Hassan who were both hit by stray bullets during the ensuing clash.
Sloppy shooting skills have been a problem in the PNP, brought by the budget constraints to buy bullets for regular marksmanship training for cops.
In most cases, it is the policemen who have to shell out money to buy bullets if they want to hone their shooting skills. (Aaron Recuenco)