SEN. Ronald dela Rosa yesterday said he would push anew to remove political influence among local chief executives in choosing their respective chiefs of police.
Dela Rosa said he will once again pursue the amendment to the Local Government Code which allows municipal and city mayors to handpick their choice of chief of police.
Being a police officer “my whole life,” Dela Rosa said the appointment of chiefs of police by local chief executives is one of the “biggest problems” of the police force.
If reelected in the 2025 midterm elections, Dela Rosa said he would push harder for the passage of the measure.
“Uulitin ko ‘yang proposal na ‘yan dahil nga that’s the only way na ma-professionalize mo talaga to the fullest ang Philippine National Police. Uulit-ulitin ko ‘yan (I will file that recommendation anew because that’s the only way to professionalize the PNP. I will file that again),” he said.
“Ang maganda sana sa PNP para maging professional talaga ay tanggalin ‘yung koneksiyon nila sa politico, ‘yung control ng mga politicians over the PNP, tanggalin dapat yan…kasi hanggang nandiyan yan, mapo-politicize talaga ang PNP (If we want a really professional PNP, we must remove the influence of politicians over the PNP because if not, the police organization will be really politicized),” Dela Rosa said.
“Let the PNP decide who, by merit, is going to be the provincial director, the regional director, the chief of police of every municipality. Tanggalin ‘yung probisyon sa Local Government Code na ang politico ang pumipili (Remove the provision in the Local Government Code giving politicians the power to choose),” he added.
In the present 19th Congress, Dela Rosa sponsored and defended that measure which introduced reorganizational reforms in the PNP but the provision that takes away the power of local chief executives to choose their chiefs of police was not accepted in the final version of the bill.
Dela Rosa agreed to remove that provision to save the other reforms that were included in the bill such as the setting of the retirement age of cops to 57 years old which was eventually vetoed by President Marcos Jr.
