MANILA: The Philippine National Police has kicked off a new fitness initiative for officers, vowing to get overweight personnel back in shape or out of the service.

Launched this week, the campaign is called Pulisteniks, from “pulis,” which means police in Tagalog, and “calisthenics.”

The program mandates PNP units nationwide to dedicate Tuesdays and Thursdays to fitness, including various physical activities such as running, walking, jogging, biking, Zumba, and combat sports like arnis – the national martial art and sport of the Philippines – aikido, boxing, karate-do, judo, muay thai, swimming, table tennis, and taekwondo.

“The directive of our chief PNP is clear. We need our police officers to be physically fit. This program has been in place for a long time, but now we’re putting more focus on it because we’re also aiming to meet our target response time,” Maj. Philipp Ines, Manila Police District spokesperson, told Arab News.

“What is happening now is just a reiteration of our ongoing programs. The good thing is we’re now being given time to focus on physical conditioning every Tuesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. This is a good program to help our officers reduce weight and be able to keep up with the demands of public service.”

Under the Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990 all PNP officers are required to keep their body weight within 5 kg – either above or below – a standard weight based on their height and sex.

“We undergo quarterly check-ups, where they check if our BMI – body mass index – is within the acceptable range. If it’s not, the health or medical officer tells our personnel to lose weight. That’s why now there’s a program in place to help with that because before it was hard for many officers due to the lack of time,” Ines said.

“The Manila Police District Health Service is monitoring our progress so we can track whether we’re able to comply. And every year, there’s a required physical fitness test that we all have to pass. If you fail those tests twice in a row, it could be grounds for separation from service.”

Philippine Police Chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III said that officers are given a target of six months to a year to lose weight.

“After a year, if they don’t meet the standards, they can be removed from the service,” he said in a radio interview.

The fitness program has already gained support from Filipino netizens whose comments on Facebook ranged from “I hope they lose weight to look better” to “It’s embarrassing to see all fat police officers these days,” and “your uniform doesn’t fit you.”

Remedios Borejon, retired National Police Commission public affairs officer, told Arab News the program should help improve how the police are seen.

“I’m in favor of the program. This is also to help make our police officers look prim and proper, like gentlemen. Because it really doesn’t look good if a police officer looks sloppy or overweight,” she said.

“In the past, you rarely saw overweight police officers. I support this. It helps improve their image and boosts professionalism.”

QINGDAO, China: China hosted defense ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.

Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.

The Qingdao meeting of the organization’s top defense officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.

It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defense spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.

Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight.

China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov painted a bleak picture of a world seeing “worsening geopolitical tensions” when he addressed his counterparts at the meeting.

“The current military and political situation in the world remains difficult and shows signs of further deterioration,” he said, according to a statement by the Russian defense ministry.

His Chinese counterpart Dong Jun also framed Thursday’s meeting in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world in “chaos and instability.”

“As momentous changes of the century accelerate, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise,” Dong said as he welcomed defense chiefs from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus and elsewhere on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.

“Hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts severely undermine the international order,” he warned.

He urged his counterparts to “take more robust actions to jointly safeguard the environment for peaceful development.”

Recent fighting between Israel, Iran and the United States will likely also be discussed in Qingdao.

Beijing refrained from offering anything more than diplomatic support to its close partner Tehran throughout that conflict, reflecting its limited leverage in the region and reluctance to worsen relations with the United States.

“Public backing for Iran will come in the form of words, rather than deeds,” James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.

“Other than condemning the US strikes on Iran, Beijing can be expected to continue treading cautiously in the Middle East’s security issues and would not want to be dragged into the region’s security challenges,” he said.

Iran’s defense minister will likely “discuss with China the supply of weapons but I doubt China would agree,” said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert in China foreign policy and a lecturer at Exeter University.

“It would be seen as provocative by both Israel... and, even more important for China, the US, with which Beijing is trying to stabilize relations,” Ghiselli said.

India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges.”

“The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalization, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments his office posted on social media platform X.