MANILA, Philippines - Police officers who can’t shoot straight will lose their service firearms.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa has ordered all PNP members to undergo marksmanship training, and those who fail will be disarmed to prevent them from causing collateral damage.

Dela Rosa admitted that on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 as the best, the average marksmanship in the PNP is 6 to 7.5.

“I will disarm those who will fail. They are not qualified to hold firearms because they are not good shooters. They are not proficient,” he told reporters yesterday at the start of the three-day Chief PNP Bato Cup in Lipa, Batangas.

“They might cause collateral damage in their surroundings if they will continuing possessing guns. They are not competent after all,” he added.

Dela Rosa said police officers good at shooting would be tapped to share their talent with other policemen.

“I am directing them henceforth to train policemen in their respective units. They should share their ability, skills, knowledge in shooting to improve the level of competency in marksmanship of policemen,” he added.

The PNP chief also instructed the Directorate for Human Resources and Doctrine Development (DHRDD) to revive the gun proficiency training and test for policemen.

“So before the third quarter ends, we have to conduct the test so that we would know the passing average,” he said.

He clarified that improving marksmanship does not mean policemen have to shoot drug pushers dead.

“I have to make sure that my men are always alive after every encounter… but it doesn’t mean you have to kill all the suspects. That is not my order,” Dela Rosa said.

“My order is to arrest the suspects based on police operational procedures and we have to respect the rule of law always, all the time. That’s what we are here for,” he added.

The PNP chief expressed belief that previous leaders had different priorities and improving the shooting skills of policemen was not among them. For this reason, Dela Rosa said the PNP under him would prioritize the shooting skills of police officers and the budget will come from maintenance and other operating (MOOE) expenses of the PNP.

“We have MOOE for bullets so what we will do is to monitor if it is really used to buy bullets for the practice of the police force,” he added.

Dela Rosa noted that if policemen are good at shooting, criminals would not engage them.