All members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) — from generals to the lowest ranking uniformed officers — will be required to maintain a physically fit appearance that reflects discipline and professionalism, a PNP official announced on Tuesday, June 10.
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said national police chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III has underscored the importance of physical fitness, asserting that a well-maintained body is a reflection of discipline.
“As they say, a sound body, sound mind, thus the physical appearance of the police should already reflect discipline. That is what our Chief PNP wants,” said Fajardo.
She emphasized that there is no excuses, citing Torre’s ability to perform 100 push-ups at the age 55 as proof of his commitment to fitness.
Besides, Fajardo noted that the PNP has an existing policy stating that officers who fail the physical fitness test twice cannot be promoted – a rule that will now be strictly implemented.
“This will be very challenging to our personnel who have already gained extra weight but as the Chief PNP said, ‘I don’t care, I will not command what kind of exercise you need and if it needs to consult your doctors on the kind of exercises that you need but I have to see that you are exerting efforts to lose weight’,” said Fajardo.
This is not the first time that a sitting Chief PNP compelled all policemen to lose weight.
During the time of Panfilo Lacson, all policemen were required to maintain a 34-inch waistline while Jesus Verzosa implemented the requirement for every cop to go up to a 10-storey building using stairs.
Then PNP chief Archie Gamboa, on the other hand, implemented the Body Mass Index, while Debold Sinas even consulted with fitness instructors to come up with a sitting exercise routine.
On the part of Torre, he said all parameters will be considered, including age and height, in coming up with exercise challenges that must be passed by all policemen.
But the bottom line is to have a body that is acceptable to the public.
RANDOM CHECKS
Fajardo said that all policemen must take the instruction of the Chief PNP seriously as she insinuated that there could be a surprise and random conduct of physical fitness tests like push-ups by Torre himself.
If a policeman fails a random and surprise physical fitness test (PFT), the PFT data will retrieved, and the personnel who supervised the test will be required to explain why he was given a passing rate.
Torre will not intervene on how the policemen would lose weight since there are medical conditions that must also be considered, according to Fajardo.
“But as a general rule, the Chief PNP said, I want every policeman to be fit,” said Fajardo. (Aaron Recuenco)
