AFTER waiting for three months during the extension of the term of Gen. Benjamin Acorda, we now have a new chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). He is Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil who used to be head of the Directorate for Comptrollership, the office in charge of finances of the 232,000-strong civilian police organization.
Malacañang earlier designated the PNP’s deputy chief for administration, Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Peralta, the most senior official after Acorda in the command group, as PNP officer-in-charge. He was a PNP OIC for a day.
Acorda, Marbil and Peralta belong to the Philippine Military Academy “Sambisig” Class of 1991. Marbil will serve as the top policeman until February 2025.
Marbil is no doubt qualified for the position, having held the posts of chief of the PNP Highway Patrol Group and regional director of the PNP in Eastern Visayas (Region 8). This last item identifies him with another Region 8 celebrity factotum, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the President’s cousin who now holds both official legislative and unofficial executive powers (such as raiding smuggled rice and enticing business investors abroad).
‘It is good that he recognizes the fact that public partnership and using modern technology would be an effective and efficient tool and a counter-force to combat criminality.’
President Marcos Jr. challenged Marbil to address emerging threats and “champion a police that is pro-God, pro-country, pro-people, [and] pro-environment” in line with his vision of a new Philippines. At the PNP change of command ceremony in Camp Crame last Monday, Marcos directed Marbil to foster closer collaboration between the police organization and his administration to address emerging threats to internal security like cybercrime, terrorism, and transnational crimes.
General Marbil is faced with a gargantuan challenge because the President wants to “ensure that the PNP will be agents of progressive transformation in the lives of our people by ensuring the safety and well-being of every community in the land.” This is because to achieve a professional police organization, the PNP must start imposing strict discipline among its ranks. Policemen should no longer be involved in kidnapping and murder, as in the case of the beauty pageant contestant in Batangas who remains missing up months after she disappeared. There should be no more high-profile drug scandals such as what happened in Tondo, Manila where a low-ranking cop was arrested for syndicate activities.
Marbil should also make good on his promise to fight new, evolving forms of criminality that are exploiting modern technology.
Marbil enumerated vital points for the PNP to increase effectiveness — “quality of leadership, knowledge, ability, and professionalism within the ranks.”
“Leadership by example will be the backbone of our operational motto as we continue the fight against illegal drugs, domestic crime and violence, organized crime, human trafficking, violent extremists, terrorism, cybercrime, and transnational and nontraditional security challenges,” Marbil said. It is good that he recognizes the fact that public partnership and using modern technology would be an effective and efficient tool and a counter-force to combat criminality.
Acorda said the PNP, as an organization founded on professionalism, is more than equipped to undertake administrative investigation and if circumstances warrant, punish personnel involved in criminal activities.
These mechanisms are designed to ferret out the truth first and foremost, but the same process would also give the opportunity for PNP officers under probe a venue to defend themselves.
General Marbil should now strengthen the PNP Internal Affairs Services and the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group which are part of built-in mechanisms designed to deal with erring personnel.
Good luck to the new PNP chief who will serve in the next 11 months.
