PNP (Mark Balmores/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House of Representatives unanimously approved on third and final reading Wednesday, July 31 the proposed law restructuring the Philippine National Police (PNP), as embodied in House Bill (HB) No.8327.

A nominal vote during Wednesday afternoon's plenary session showed that 187 congressman voted to pass the bill.

The measure seeks to amend Sections 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 35, 35-A, 36, 67, and 67-A OF Republic Act (RA) No.6975, also known are the "Department of Interior and Local Government Act of 1990", as amended, and Section 32 of RA No.8551, also known as the "Philippine National Police Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998".

"Through these various changes, we aspire to 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," said House Speaker Martin Romualdez, a principal author of the bill and leader of the 312-member House of Representatives.

The bills states that 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 measure creates the position of directorate for personnel and records management, for intelligence, for operations, for logistics, for plans, comptrollership, for police community relations, for investigation, for training, 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]," HB No.8327 read.

"The Chief of the PNP shall serve a term of office not to exceed four (4) years, and shall be compulsory retired at the maximum tenure in position herein prescribed, or at age 56, whichever is earlier," it further stated.

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, with also the rank of police lieutenant general.

The measure will also establish Area Police Commands (APC) 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.

"Finally, the APC shall support the police regional offices in the conduct of inter-regional anti criminality operations and investigation," the 24-page bill read.

The five initial APCs are the Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Eastern Mindanao, and Western Mindanao APCs.

Some of the authors of the bill are House Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe, Reps. Sancho Fernando Oaminal, Jorge Bustos, Samier Tan, Shernee Tan-Tambut, Dan Fernandez, Romeo Acop, and Jurdin Jesus Romualdo.