In less than 24 hours, the Presidential Security Group was put in a very interesting situation. The topic? It’s K9 dogs.
Articles posted by some media entities mentioned that PSG, the elite unite assigned to protect the President of the Republic, is lacking K-9 dogs. The source was the previous inventory conducted by the Commission on Audit (CoA) in December 2016.
It was mentioned that PSG has only 20 K-9 dogs at present, appearing to have five (5) lacking to meet the miximum required for the unit to excel and function properly.
As of 05 July 2023 4:30 p.m., in an interview with PSG Spokesperson LTC MICHAEL T AQUINO he said, “The ceiling or maximum number of K-9 dogs required for our unit is 30 for 2017. It has been increased from 25 in 2016 for protecting the President and his family in Davao City. We currently have 27 units. We have enough K-9 dogs that perform bomb sweeps and detection in every Presidential engagement to assure that he and his family as well as other VVIPs are safe.” “We have pending request for additional three (3) dogs worth 3.5M pesos which is already undergoing the procurement process, hopefully we can have them soon,” he continued.
It was also mentioned that according to CoA, “11 dogs retired in 2016 and there are five (5) more to retire in 2018.”
When asked LTC AQUINO on this matter, he clarified, “Among those 11 dogs that were reported to be retiring, six (6) dogs are due to retire; five (5) on 2019, four (4) on 2021, and five (5) on 2022.”
“The public has nothing to worry about. K-9 dogs in PSG are enough for the protection of President together with his family,” he added.
