A bill seeking to restructure the Philippine National Police (PNP) is inching its way into becoming law after it hurdled third reading approval at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
During the plenary session, a total of 187 lawmakers voted to approve House Bill (HB) No. 8327, which seeks to amend various sections of Republic Act (RA) No. 6975 or the Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990 and RA No. 8551 or the Philippine National Police Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998.
No lawmaker voted against the bill or abstained from voting.
Speaker Martin Romualdez, the principal author of the bill, said the proposed changes would help make the PNP more responsive in dealing with its present-day challenges, including internal issues.
“This will ultimately redound to the benefit of Filipinos, whom the PNP seeks to protect,” Romualdez said.
Under the bill, the PNP chief shall have a command group composed of the offices of the deputy chief of the PNP for administration, the deputy chief of the PNP for operations, and the chief of the directorial staff.
The bill also pushes for the creation of positions of the directorate for personnel and records management, for intelligence, for operations, for logistics, for plans, comptrollership, for police community relations, for investigation, for training as well as education and doctrine development, for research and development, and for information and communications technology management.
“The Chief of the PNP shall be appointed by the President from among the senior officers down to the rank of Police Brigadier General [subject to confirmation by the Commission on Appointments],” the bill read.
It proposes that the PNP chief shall serve a term of office not to exceed four years, and “shall be compulsory retired at the maximum tenure in position herein prescribed, or at age 56, whichever is earlier”.
The bill provides that the PNP Chief shall have the rank of police general; the second in command will have the position title of deputy chief of the PNP for administration, with the rank of police lieutenant general; while the third in command shall have the position title of deputy chief of the PNP for operations, also with the rank of police lieutenant general.
Area Police Commands (APC) shall be established in clustered police regional offices, district offices and city police offices “in order to enhance the control of the Chief of the PNP.”
“The APC shall orchestrate, supervise, and control the conduct of inter-regional operations against insurgency, terrorism, and other internal security threats. Further, the APC shall likewise conduct search, rescue, and relief operations in times of calamities and other emergency situations within their respective areas of jurisdiction,” it said.
The APC shall also support the police regional offices in the conduct of inter-regional anti-criminality operations and investigations.
The five initial APCs are the Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Eastern Mindanao, and Western Mindanao APCs.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr., has earlier expressed support for the proposal, saying it would equip the police force with the tools and structure needed to effectively address contemporary law enforcement challenges. (PNA)
