“We want to help the victims who aspire to join the police force but were taken advantage of by individuals who abuse their innocence in the recruitment process,” Napolcom regional director Rodolfo Santos Jr. said during a meeting with National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) regional director Salong Sunggod.
Santos called on the victims to cooperate with the police to determine the source of these documents. Aetas applying for policemen have submitted so-called height waivers supposedly meant to exempt them from height requirements for the police force. They allegedly paid various amounts to obtain such waivers which turned out to be fabricated.
Aetas are usually short, averaging about 1.5 meters in height. The police height requirement for male cops is 1.62 meters while for females, it’s 1.57 meters. They also must weigh not more or less than five kilograms from the standard weight corresponding to one’s height, age, and sex.
Despite the fake documents of the Aetas, Santos assured them that their applications would be reconsidered.
Santos, however, warned those who are already in the police service but would be found to have submitted fake height waivers and certificates of confirmation would be charged.
“We are currently conducting investigation, to include backtracking of documents submitted by applicants with height waivers in the previous recruitment cycles for probable determination of the source and authors of these fake documents,” Santos said.
The move to collaborate with the NCIP was done in time for this year’s recruitment for 1,600 policemen and women in Central Luzon.
The Central Luzon police is on its last stage of the first phase of recruiting 450 policemen and women and has already started accepting application for the second phase recruiting 1,150 more in November.
