MANILA – Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Tuesday said he is pushing for changes in the organizational structure of the Philippine National Police (PNP), including trimming down the number of police generals from over 130 to just 25.
In a Palace press briefing, Remulla, installed as the new Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary two weeks ago, said addressing the “top-heavy” police organization will be among his priorities.
“There are a lot of generals without commands. Mayroon tayong APC, area police commands, na wala naman tao sa ilalim nila. So, marami tayong lugar na redundancies na kailangan i-trim down (We have area police commands that have no subordinates. So there are redundancies that need to be trimmed down),” Remulla said.
“It’s a 32-year-old law na kailangan bisitahin ulit (that needs to be revisited),” he added, referring to Republic Act (RA) 6975 or the DILG Act of 1991, which created the PNP.
Remulla said the planned PNP reorganization was among the topics discussed during a sectoral meeting presided over by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Malacañang on Tuesday morning.
Asked what will happen to active police generals, the DILG chief said nothing is final at the moment as they are still studying the reorganization push.
“It’s just one of my recommendations to flatten the organization,” he said.
Earlier, PNP chief Police General Rommel Marbil appealed to lawmakers to amend RA 6975 to address what he considers its organizational flaws.
NCRPO starts merit-based selection
Meanwhile, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) will be implementing its merit-based recruitment system in hiring more personnel to boost its ranks.
NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Sidney Hernia said stringent measures were implemented to guarantee the transparency of each phase of the recruitment process.
“This remarkable recruitment initiative is considered the cleanest recruitment process, which has started a new era for the NCRPO, demonstrating its commitment to upholding fairness, professionalism and transparency in recruiting new officers,” Hernia said in a statement.
About 7, 971 applicants will compete for 400 available quotas for patrolman/patrolwomen and 320 male applicants will occupy 80 perent of the quota.
The remaining 20 percent or equivalent to 80 recruits will be for female applicants. (With Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)