Over the years, the five Directorates for Integrated Police Operations (DIPOs of the Philippine National Police (PNP) have gained notoriety for being either the place of assignment for police generals who are just waiting for retirement or a “freezer” for generals and other senior officials who are not allies of the incumbent PNP Chief.

In other words, no senior police officials ever wished or wanted to be assigned to the DIPOs although the positions would be what Italians would call la dolce far niente, or “the sweet doing nothing.”

On Monday, PNP chief Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan announced that he wanted the DIPOs to be more active in the peace and order functions, particularly in running after communist insurgents and other threat groups in far-flung areas of the country.

“I already ordered the realignment of regional and provincial maneuver units to be placed under the operational control of the Directorates for Integrated Police Operations,” said Cascolan in a press briefing at Camp Crame.

“We will expand the DIPO. They will have a bigger function in internal security operations. After all, that is essentially the wisdom and intent behind the creation of these PNP area commands,” he added.

Aside from the Special Action Force (SAF), members of the regional and provincial maneuver units of the PNP are among the most well-equipped and well-trained as their combat training involves those relating to internal security.

Cascolan said the move is in support of the Executive Order No. 70 to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC).

“These maneuver or mobile units which are the cutting edge of PNP internal security operations will be deployed in the heartland and areas of operation of domestic threat groups where these units will be within striking distance to the enemy,” said Cascolan.

Rationale for DIPOs

Created in May 2009, the PNP-DIPOs were given the responsibility to direct the conduct of integrated anti-criminality, internal security and counter-terrorism operations in the clustered areas of the country.

The five PNP DIPOs are for Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Eastern Mindanao and Western Mindanao. Each DIPOs is headed by a two-star general, the deputy has a one-star rank and the executive officer is a colonel.

Then PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa explained that the purpose of the creation of the DIPOs is to synchronize the police and the military operations in the five clustered areas of the country.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has also five area commands—the Northern Luzon Command, the Southern Luzon Command, the Central Command based in the Visayas, the Eastern Mindanao Command and the Western Mindanao Command. Each of the area commands is headed by a three-star rank military officer.

Patterned after the AFP area commands, the main purpose of the DIPOs --- to strengthen the coordination and interoperability of the police and the military against communist insurgency, terrorists and other threat groups --- gives the national government its best shot in defeating all the threats groups operating in the country.

What went wrong?

The creation of the DIPOs did not live up to its real intent.

Cases of ‘misencounters’ between the police and the military after the DIPO creation in 2009—such as the death of six policemen and wounding of more than 10 others in Samar who were mistaken by soldiers as communist rebels in 2018 and the killing of four military intelligence operatives in Jolo three months ago— indicated that the real intent for its creation was not being accomplished.

In fact, DIPOs have already gained notoriety within the police organization as kangkungan (water spinach field) assignments. Once a police official is assigned at the DIPOs, they are basically rendered as powerless, which is considered as an insult in the police and the military.

Theoretically, all the police regional directors should consider the DIPO heads as their immediate superiors but that has not been practiced. The regional directors still directly report to the Chief PNP and in almost all cases, ignore the heads of the DIPOs.

And there is one more important factor that led to the utter failure of DIPOs for more than a decade. While the camps of military areas of commands are located in the areas where they are supposed to be, all the DIPO offices are located at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

In fact, the DIPO offices at Camp Crame are housed on establishments that are among the most dilapidated at Camp Crame.

Solution

In order for the DIPOs to live up to their mandate, Cascolan said he would relocate all the DIPO offices to where are supposed to be: the main office of the DIPO Northern Luzon should be somewhere in Northern Luzon, DIPO for Visayas should be somewhere in the Visayas and so on.

The re-assignment of maneuver units of the PNP under the DIPOs would also give DIPO commanders personnel to command.

Cascolan said that he also wants the DIPOs to be headed by a three-star general in order to be equal in rank with military area commanders who are all three-star ranks.