THE PHILIPPINE National Police inducted 157 technical professionals into the PNP Officer Corps under its Lateral Entry Program.

Sixty-nine lawyers, eight medical doctors and one pastor were appointed to the initial rank of captain with a monthly salary of P56,582. Also appointed as lieutenant were a dentist, 29 nurses, two butritionists/dieticians, one optometrist, 34 IT officers, three engineers, six chemists, and three criminologists.

All newly appointed police commissioned officers will undergo the Officers’ Basic Course and Field Training Program before reporting to their respective units.

PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said that these professionals are crucial in strengthening the police organization’s human resource and technical capabilities in addressing various challenges in their campaign against criminality, illegal drugs violent extremism, lawlessness, terrorism, natural and man-made disasters, and Covid 19, among others.

The Lateral Entry Program for technical service officers is among the regular sources of Police Commissioned Officers aside from the cadetship program in the PNP Academy.