LEVEL OF DISCIPLINE OF UNIFORMED PERSONNEL, AN ASSESSMENT

The study aims to determine the level of discipline of uniformed personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines whose primary mission is to protect the people, secure sovereignty of the state and the integrity of national territory. The AFP as one of the major government institution with its uniformed personnel as the public servants, the study and assessment of level of discipline of uniformed personnel in terms of their compliance, performance, behavior and appearance is necessary because it projects the good or bad images of the individuals as well as the institutions. In order to answer the problem, the researcher chooses the whole personnel of Task Force Lucena, one of the military units operationally controlled by Southern Luzon Command, AFP based at Bgy Market View, Lucena City. The researcher used a quantitative descriptive method of research during data gathering. He used the survey questionnaire distributed to the twenty (20) selected x ENVERGA UNIVERSITY personnel of Task Force Lucena and thirty (30) barangay officials and civilian of Bgy Market View, Lucena City with a total of fifty (50) respondents. The survey questionnaire contains a set of organized question to determine the level of discipline of uniformed personnel. It served as main data gathering instrument with three parts. The first part was the demographic profile of the respondents. Part 2 includes questions regarding the kind of trainings given to the uniformed personnel which were answered by military respondents only. The third part was about the perception of the respondents on the level of discipline of the uniformed personnel in terms of compliance, performance, behavior, appearance while on their in and off duties. The respondents rated using a numerical scale of 1 to 5 indicating the interpretation and its equivalent points. Frequency, percentage, weighted mean, and ranking were used as statistical treatment. Based on the findings derived from the gathered data, the study reveals that uniformed personnel assigned with Task Force Lucena have high level of discipline in terms of compliance with a weight mean of 4.715, while performance has 4.667 WM, with a 3.802 WM for behavior , and appearance has a 4.75WM. These manifest that the uniformed personnel are well trained soldiers that performed with the highest degree of discipline with an overall 4.483 WM. In return if giving of rewards, they are competent to earn the highest degree of respect not only from Armed Forces but from community as well. Furthermore, the study implies that leaders were very effective in handling their men in terms of their discipline. Lastly, the findings proved that the civilians believed and have trust in the abilities of the uniformed personnel.