PHILIPPINE National Police chief General Rommel Francisco D. Marbil yesterday encouraged their stakeholders, especially the wealthy ones to come up with honest-to-goodness programs that will benefit poor and sick members of the 232,000-strong police force and their families.

“Before we start helping other people, let us start helping each other first. Kaya po meron tayong Damayan and it will be replicated to all the regions,” the top cop asked his officials and their men as well as their various stakeholders coming from different sectors of the society and other non-governmental organizations.

The 30th PNP chief in particular exhorted the rich to consider the plight of policemen and their families who need urgent medical assistance but cannot afford them.

“Bago po Ninyo pakainin yung mga tao sa labas ay pakainin ninyo muna ang tao nating nagugutom. Kung gusto niyong tumulong sa mga taong may sakit, marami pong pulis dito na ang kapamilya nila nangangailangan ng tulong niyo,” Gen. Marbil said.

“Priority po natin ang kapwa pulis po natin, we help each other because nobody will help you but us, the Philippine National Police,” the PNP chief added.

The top cop is bent on coming up with programs that will really help policemen and their families who are in dire need of medical assistance.

Being exposed to the elements, especially this summer, members of the police force specifically patrollers who ensure public safety 24/7 are prone to catching illness and also have a higher rate of having stress problems.

This is the reason why the police force and their wife and children need adequate medical support.

Although their salaries have been raised, it is understandable that many members of the police force especially those who still have no home they can really call their own, still suffer from financial woes.

This is because they have to budget their salary for their day-to-day expenses, monthly rent and service utility fee, fare and allowance of their kids in school, and even loan deduction.

Money needed to buy their maintenance medicine and to pay for emergency medical hospital needs is also a main concern of many members of the force.

Gen. Marbil said this is a major reason why he is exhorting all PNP stakeholders, especially those who can afford to help them by launching a program that will really support the police force and their families.

At present, several non-government groups are providing real help to the police force. One of them is the Chinese General Hospital which provides free medical assistance to policemen who have been ‘wounded in the line of duty’ or while fighting armed criminals and terrorists.

Another is the PNP Foundation, Inc., which regularly provides the police force with modern ‘move, shoot, communicate and investigate’ equipment.