Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Deputy Director Police Brigadier General Joaquin Alva, to the PNPA Senior Officials, and to the 1,200 cadets and PNPA employees and public servants present in today’s flag raising ceremony, magandang umaga po.
It is my honor and privilege to speak before the primary institution responsible for training the future leaders of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). You are the uniformed personnel who serve as our vanguards of peace and order, our vanguards of safety and security.
On behalf of the Filipino people, we thank you for your commitment and dedication to your respective mandates. Saludo po kami sa inyong lahat.
We, at the Department of Budget and Management, fully support PNPA’s mission to provide the best comprehensive education, training, and leadership development program to transform you, our dear Cadets, into God-centered, competent, and trustworthy public safety leaders.
Indeed, leadership ranks high in the PNPA Curriculum, and I agree with General Noble that it is an essential virtue that cannot be just taught, but should be caught. It is not just learned; it is developed.
Nevertheless, I will try my best to impart my humble experiences and lessons in leadership from my experiences in government service, especially at the DBM.
Throughout my almost twenty years as a public servant, I learned from my mentors, especially the late Senator Edgardo Angara, that we must always strive for reform-oriented public service, and restore the public's trust in the government. We have to let the people know that the government is working for them and not against them. And we can do this by ensuring transparency and accountability through our key reforms and initiatives.
An advocacy close to my heart that is an initiative towards transparency and public participation is the Philippine Open Government Partnership or PH-OGP. This provides an avenue for genuine citizen participation in government processes and a platform for collaboration between champions and movers in government alongside our active non-government actors.
Just last Friday, the PH-OGP Steering Committee chaired by yours truly met in Davao City to discuss the institutionalization of the PH-OGP through a draft Executive Order. We are also in the process of crafting the 6th National Action Plan which will amplify collaboration between government agencies and the non-government sector in the design, implementation, and monitoring of our programs.
I hope we can have more reforms and initiatives to establish public trust such as this, and intensify information dissemination and provide more opportunities for exchange with the public. This way, the government’s presence will be more felt by the very people it pledged to serve.
Our pursuit of reform-oriented service towards public trust is also evident in our 2023 Proposed National Budget which was crafted to ensure that no one will be left behind—from our public servants including our uniformed personnel, to the public that we are sworn to protect. We are investing heavily in human capital development to provide every Filipino a fighting chance to manage life’s uncertainties and achieve their full potential.
Towards uplifting the individual capacities of our people, including government employees and our uniformed personnel, we likewise fully support the thrust of PNPA’s Cadetship Program in consonance with the thrust of the PNP, BFP, and BJMP, to develop professional, morally upright, and dedicated public safety officers imbued with the values of justice, integrity, and service.
In fact, our 2023 Proposed National Budget has given some Php 191.85 billion to the PNP; Php 27.79 billion for the BFP; and Php 22.34 billion will be for the BJMP. And this is just some of the many aspects of our budget and reforms that aim to capacitate and empower our people, and equip them to provide the quality of public service that every Filipino deserves.
Rest assured that the DBM is one with PNPA in the realization of its vision to be a world-class center of excellence in public safety education, producing professional and service-oriented public safety leaders who can go above and beyond the call of duty. Let us always be champions of good governance and public trust, so that the people’s confidence in the bureaucracy may never waver.
Assalamu alaikum. Maraming salamat at mabuhay ang mga magigiting na tanod ng ating kaligtasan!
