Trinidad town BPSOs keep top

shape in marching tanod drills

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept 16 (PIA) –So, how do your officials treat your village frontline peace and safety officers?

In Trinidad town in Bohol, Barangay Peace-keeping and Safety Officers (BPSOs) or more familiarly called barangay tanods get a special day in a year, where they themselves become a spectacle that keeps people on the tips of their toes.

While many local officials seldom acknowledge and recognize the critical role barangay tanods play in their local government units, here, barangay tanods, in their smartly manufactured uniforms take to the parade grounds, perform tactical tasks and formations in a drill that showcases discipline of troops, unity in command execution and march in choreographed tempo that makes every kid wanting to be a soldier drool.

Now institutionalized as a spectacle highlighting the town’s annual Foundation Day celebration, the barangay tanods from the town’s twenty barangays assemble on the parade grounds and try to out-wit each other in the performance of tasks showcasing the brand of discipline and honor man in uniform held on, for decades now.

Wearing uniforms inspired by the military’s full battle dress attire, to the police’s urban camouflage, to training uniforms and combat boots, Trinidad barangay tanods wield arnis, and perform tasks in front of thousands of spectators in a major crowd-drawer event of the town anniversary.

Arnis, another feature Trinidad institutionalized to afford their tanods the only decent allowable self-protection they afford for themselves against potentially armed and dangerous criminals or unruly drunkard causing trouble in barangay events, has been an edge the tanods get, courtesy of the training they get from criminology students of Trinidad Municipal College, said Mayor Roberto Cajes, who was then the school administrator who allowed the capacity building training for their town tanods.

Inspired by the Filipino martial arts, tanods who have the capacity to wield the arnis, are expected to handle themselves in strict discipline and are trained to dis-arm to neutralize trouble makers, and to capably evade and parry attacks from knife wielding criminals, Cajes, who is also a lawyer explained.

Although considered agents of the persons in authority, barangay tanods still have to be officially known by the community, thus the uniform, and the official recognition, so they can perform their tasks efficiently, he continued.

First introduced with the tanod drill in the early 1980’s, the tanods have performed their critical roles, lending their crime deterring and strategic presence in events, to lending the necessary brute strength in barangay menial tasks including disaster response, peace keeping and physical set up in social events, shares the mayor and former congressman, in an interview recently.

A long-time fixture in the village organizational set-up, barangay tanods, some numbering 7 to as much as 20 in other areas, have been the village’s police power, from keeping peace in social events to mediating family disputes that cause public disturbances.

“It was during a disco in one of our villages, a scuffle ensued between teens, and tanods, including the female barangay chairman stepped in, to stop the fighting. Both the person in authority and her agents came out bruised, as without proper introduction to the people, they essentially stepped into the middle of crossfire, mayor Cajes shared.

Started during Mayor Avelino Puracan’s term, we first introduced the barangay tanods to the townfolks, putting a solution to letting the town know who are these people, said Councilor Victoriano Dellosa.

The move: present the tanods of the town, through a public demonstration of marching discipline and order. It was a hit.

The often drab anniversary program gets a pinch of the comical, when barangay tanods present themselves in a drill to entertain viewers and add color to the Foundation Day.

“When we started this, imagine a scenario when the platoon sergeant commands them to face left, and half of the squad faces right, it was funny at first,” the mayor recalled.

It was during those times that we envisioned, perhaps, making the tanods perform drills, could be a highlight of the anniversary, Dellosa, who was a former Navy frogman and newly elected town councilor, who also liked the idea of seeing discipline used by civilians.

From then on, the tanod drill became an exciting addition to the town’s anniversary program, until 2011, when Mayor Roberto Cajes was elected, Dellosa said.

That time, Dellosa authored Municipal Ordinance No 7, series of 2011, institutionalizing the Barangay tanod Drill Competition as one of the highlight activities of the town’s Foundation Anniversary and providing funds thereof.

The ordinance states: this provides the means by which the people are made aware that barangay tanods are discipline persons worthy as an agent of the person in authority in maintaining peace and order in their respective communities.

The ordinance lays the criteria in discipline which rates unity and uniformity in command execution, alertness and limiting unnecessary movements, neatness and honorable deportment which generates the positive response from audiences and judges.

The ordinance also provides for appropriation of cash prizes and penalties for tanod squads’ non participation in the competition.

In January of 2016, Bohol Sangguninag Panlalawigan also declared the municipal ordinance institutionalizing arnis as martial arts sports competition demonstration by tanods as major highlight in the town’s foundation day.

Now, we have come a long way that the drill execution has become precise, a sign that our barangay tanods are in ship-shape and are worthy respectable agents of persons in authority, Mayor Cajes said. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

ACROSS THE YEARS. For about three decades now, barangay tanods of Trinidad Bohol have shown their rather kind of dedication in front-lining for the government in peace and order, something that the town took seriously by putting up financial assistance and annually presenting them in their alertness and capacity to execute commands from their platoon sergeants. The tanod drill has become an institutionalized demonstration of local peacekeepers’ response to disaster, criminality and peace and order. (PIAbohol/Trinidad LGU)

ANTI-CRIME FORCE MULTIPLIERS. Barangay tanods in the town, according to mayor Roberto Cajes have levelled up into a disciplined and dedicated proud community based peace keepers who have through the years, successfully demonstrated their capacity to front line the government in the barangays. (PIAbohol)