Blast from the Past: Organizing BPOCs

One year ago today, 75 percent of all the barangays in Capiz have reported that they have organized their Barangay Peace and Order Councils following the circular which came from the office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronnie Puno.

Secretary Puno called for the reorganization of said councils across the country as a means to better protect the general public. A BPOC serves as the implementing arm of the Integrated Area/Public Safety Plan formulated by their respective municipalities or cities. Therefore, all community-based anti-crime activities are to be supervised, coordinated, and monitored carefully by a BPOC.

Furthermore, Secretary Ronnie Puno ordered such move because of the barangay elections which took place a year before. The new set of barangay officials needed to create their own BPOC to maintain the effectiveness of public safety services accorded to the general public across the Philippines.

Also, the circular included Secretary Puno's suggestion to barangay officials to create a public safety plan which should cover crime prevention and control; counterinsurgency and terrorism; fire prevention and suppression; disaster management and control; and environmental enhancement. Since this public safety plan is the official planning document of the reorganized BPOCs, it is essential that it should be completed.

Secretary Puno had this to say regarding the reorganization of BPOCs: "Considering that the DILG and local government units are jointly exerting efforts to maintain the viability of local institutions necessary for the effective delivery of peace and order and public safety services, there is a need to reorganize the BPOCs and to regularly monitor and evaluate them to ensure their functionality."

Keeping the peace across the country is a big task. And it is a good strategy to start with every barangay. If all barangays can reorganize and keep their BPOCs active, the fight against crime would be a little easier. In addition, BPOCs can prevent crimes as they are ordered to help barangay tanods identify people in the community with "strong deviant behavior". These individuals should then be referred to appropriate authorities. This way, several components of the system would be helping each other out to keep the peace across the land.