SUMMARY
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The Philippine National Police Directorate for Personnel and Records Management (PNP DPRM) recommended the suspension of Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements as a requirement in promoting policemen.
According to the DPRM, it recommended the suspension after it received a petition from cops protesting the said requirement. The recommendation was submitted by the DPRM on June 29 and was received by the Office of the Chief of the PNP on Monday, July 12.
The policemen cited discrimination as one of the reasons as to why the policy should be suspended.
On July 13, PNP chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar approved DPRM’s recommendation. The PNP chief said he considered the struggles of policemen during the pandemic in signing the suspension order.
“In approving this, we took into consideration the balance between the workload of all our personnel in this time of pandemic and the need for them to comply with this Memorandum Circular just to be promoted,” Eleazar said in a statement.
The petition’s request
“On the said petition, the movement cited that implementation of such policy is detrimental and considered as a form of discrimination for personnel who are above normal BMI, among other reasons,” the memorandum read.
Under the PNP Memorandum Circular 2020-029, “only PNP personnel with normal and/or PNP acceptable BMI shall be considered for promotion.” The comprehensive memorandum was issued in April 2020 by then PNP chief Police General Archie Gamboa to address the “quality issues” with overweight and obese cops.
BMI is defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) as a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. According to the CDC, aside from indicating high body fatness, BMI can also determine weight categories that might be prone to health problems.
Based on the CDC, persons who have 18.5 to 24.9 BMI are considered healthy, 25.0 to 29.9 are considered overweight, while 30.0 and above are considered obese.
Aside from discrimination, the DPRM also reasoned that the pandemic is a key factor in the cops’ struggle to lose or maintain weight.
“Apart from it, personnel who are assigned in the lower units are struggling from achieving the same due to the work schedule in the exigency of the service and the fight against COVID-19,” the memo read. – Rappler.com
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