By Mai Gevera

Davao City (31 July) -- With most police stations manned by less than 10 personnel, the Philippine National Police is bent to fill in the 21 posts as minimum requirement for every station.

This is part of the Integrated Transformation Program that the agency has started implementing to improve the efficiency of the police force.

Police Deputy Director General Jesus Verzosa bared some of the 12 inefficiencies of the PNP as well as the 32 projects that have been or still to be conducted to answer the problems.

One of the key areas where the PNP is weak on is the human resource especially in municipal police stations in rural areas, where insurgency is high.

We are filling in at least 21 positions in every station as this would be the minimum number to secure the area," Verzosa said.

Data showed that the current police-population ratio is 1:900, far from the ideal figure of 1:500.

This pushed the office to recruit at least 10,000 personnel every year in the next five years.

The official said that the agency started the program and is almost done with 90 percent and is actually serious in completing all police stations before PNP chief Avelino Razon this September.

We will be prioritizing critical areas where threat is high," he said.

This, he said, is the answer to the call of local chief executives in safeguarding their areas from terrorist acts. Recently, some municipalities in the region directly targeting municipal police stations were harassed.