INTERIOR Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla yesterday pushed for reforms in the Philippine National Police (PNP), including reducing the number of police generals to just 25 from 133.
Asked how he intends to implement the reduction, Remulla said one of the ideas they are looking at is retiring some officers. He emphasized nothing is yet final as a reorganization is still being studied.
Remulla was named to the post just two weeks ago. President Marcos Jr. has instructed him to review the PNP reorganization and recommend structural changes.
Remulla, in a briefing after a sectoral meeting in Malacañang, said the police organization is “top-heavy,” with many police generals without actual “commands” or occupying redundant positions.
He said changing the PNP organizational structure is among his priorities.
“There are a lot of generals without commands. We have APCs — area police commands — that have no people under them. So, there are redundancies that need to be trimmed down,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.
Remulla, in assuming the post two weeks ago, vowed to rid the PNP of politics as he said promotions in the police force will now be based on merit, and not the “palakasan” system. He also talked about the PNP being a “top-heavy organization” that has too many generals.
Remulla yesterday also said the law that created the PNP, Republic Act (RA) 6975 or the DILG Act of 1991, is 32 years old and needs to be revisited.
He said he wants to extend to five from two years, the period an official must serve under a certain rank, as some officials are not yet really eligible for promotion.
Remulla expressed belief the planned changes would not demoralize policemen as these aim to make them more efficient and effective.
“We keep on promoting, so we want to change a lot of that to make it five years… because the PNP is now top heavy … So there are things that we have to change to make them more efficient,” he said.
Last week, PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil asked Congress to amend the law PNP laws, saying there is a need to restructure the police force to resolve what he called systemic challenges that impede the PNP’s ability to respond swiftly and effectively.
