The promotion of Philippine National Police (PNP) officials should be "based on merit, on need and on function" as opposed to the current three-year promotional scheme under the civil service rules and regulations, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor ‘Jonvic’ Remulla asserted on Thursday, November 21.
Under the current PNP promotional system, Remulla stated that the country’s police organization has become "bloated and being promoted to general is now a right rather than a privilege."
Being civilian in character, Remulla explained that PNP officials may be upgraded to the next highest post after only three years as compared to the five-year rule mandated for the promotion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officers.
Further, Remulla cited the case of the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) which is headed by a one-star general, and whose deputy is also a one-star general.
“So why do you have two generals of the same rank occupying one position higher than the other?” Remulla asked.
The DILG chief also noted that a lot of generals are promoted yet have no command directly under them. "Sometimes there are floating (no significant assignment) generals and sayang ang capacity nila (their capacity goes to waste)."
With proper conversation and deliberation with the PNP and the national government, Remulla assured that the responsibilities of the police generals would be clearer and the delineation of areas of command would be "much better.”
He also assured that plans are on the way to improve the qualification standards for the PNP applicants and provide scholarships to graduates of the PNP Academy for them to pursue law school.
Earlier, the DILG had partnered with the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG) in employing structural reforms that will reduce the number of PNP generals from 133 to only 25.
Remulla said the coordination was already made on how the structural reforms would be done.
Remulla expressed his desire to President Marcos Jr. to decrease the number of generals in the PNP from the current number of 133 to 25.
He bared that President Marcos was very "acceptable" to his advice, citing the need to flatten the current "top-heavy" PNP’ organization as “there are a lot of generals now without commands."
“If you look at it, we have our APC (Area Police Command) without any personnel under their command. There are a lot of areas with redundancies that need to be trimmed down. It’s a 32-year law that needs to be revisited again. So those are the things that we will examine," Remulla explained.
Regarding the fate of concerned PNP generals, Remulla said he "will let them retire" and not demote them, but was quick to clarify that no decision has been finalized yet.
“Again, nothing’s final. It’s recommendatory, so wala pang ina-approve (it has not been approved)," Remulla clarified.
Remulla believed that his recommendation to downsize the top heavy PNP organization will not result to demoralization within the ranks, saying that “they are also soldiers" and “they follow orders."