by: Byron Allatog
Policing Interest
In a democratic state like the Philippines, policing as law enforcement and public safety is one core foundation for progress and nation-building. As one foundation, it needs professional and accountable police officers to preserve and maintain peace & order and public safety in the communities. Economic investments are intangible in a troubled state with high criminality trends, illegal drug problems, and terroristic incidences; prosperity will remain an elusive dream, locally impacting community growth and development.
The United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goal was adopted in 2015 by all member states to eradicate fear & violence, and poverty and to have a world of equitable and universal access to social protection, education, and health care. Similarly, the Philippine government developed the Ambisyon Natin 2040 in the same year as its long-term vision and aspirations for the Filipino people to enjoy a firmly rooted, comfortable, and secure life in the next twenty-five years. Both goals, dreams, and aspirations share a common ground- peace and prosperity; however, these long-term visions and aspirations will only stay good on paper without robust peace and order in the country.
Culture, Traditional System and Education: Setbacks to 21st Century Policing
The Philippine National Police (PNP) is the primary police force in the country under the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Still, before the establishment of the PNP in 1991, the Philippine Constabulary (PC) alone was responsible for law enforcement on a national level, while there existed independent city and municipal police units in charge of the local peace and order. The PC was the fourth branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines from 1901-1991, tracing its system, structure, and tradition under military command and doctrine. After the 1986 EDSA revolution, a new constitution was promulgated, bearing the state to have one police force that is national in scope and civilian in character. Republic Act 6975 was enacted in 1990, establishing the PNP under the reorganized Department of the Interior and Local Government. Under this law, the police force is primarily organized, trained, and equipped to perform police functions only. The police as an organization or any of its components must not be military or any position occupied by active members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Similarly, a decade before 1987, a higher police educational institution was established to develop and produce police lieutenants. Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) was born by the creation of Presidential Decree 1184, also known as “The Integrated National Police Professionalization Law of 1977. Meanwhile, Presidential Decree 1780 was established in 1981, providing PNPA with its academic charter and delivering the academy’s status as a state university and the premier educational institution of the country’s national police force. Consistent with the academic charter, the constitutional principle provides that all higher learning institutions shall enjoy academic freedom as enshrined in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. But during its existence, PNPA’s academic freedom is yet to be realized. However, it is still the primary source of young leaders of the PNP, including the Fire and Jail services of the country today.
Considering the legal system in place, the PNP organization still has many challenges in its systems and approaches on its road to genuine transformation over the years. Professionalization and accountability still need to be discovered by the whole organization bearing the problem to leaders leading the different units of the organization. This gap was seen in a study revealed by the ASOG working paper in 2020, which identified gaps behind PNP officers’ performance, “the formal organizational culture on paper appears sound; yet parts of it may be too rigid and may have failed to adapt in pace with the challenges faced by the PNP and its officers.” This opines that the Philippine Constabulary’s culture, traditions, and system are hard to replace; military doctrine is still at the forefront of the education and training of new police officers and cadets. Clearly, as seen in the CSOP institutionalization, professionalization and accountability seldom fade in their alignment with the mandate. It can be noted that the Philippine Constitution and both laws- RA 6975 & RA 8551 advance a police force that is civilian in character and a community and service-oriented agency but still need to be comprehended and institutionalized within the organization. Under the same laws and the constitution, police doctrine is a community-based service orientation, differentiated from the military doctrine, which is mission-oriented. The former explicitly engulfs the community’s welfare as paramount in achieving its mandate. The Philippine Constabulary’s shadow is dragging the genuine transformation of the PNP organization, considering its presence for nine decades. PC tradition, culture, and system negatively impact the PNP’s genuine transformation, seemingly in the education and training system of the new police recruits and PNPA cadets.
Similarly, the PNPA institution is no exemption; it produces a mixed brand of militarily inclined officers and continuously shifts away from its institutional mandate. The culture, traditions, and systems mirrored the PMA military doctrine, which clouds its product in the true nature of the police and public safety mandate. To change the PNP landscape entirely is to calibrate the source of officers, the PNPA. Professionalism and accountability are often heard and read in papers and organizational transformation programs. However, seeing them applied to produce the intended output usually ticks off base. Much has been done inside the police academy but only sometimes good on a short-term basis, vigorous on the implementor’s tenure, and fades after the latter’s exit. This cycle opens a vacuum and confusion for the cadets studying, leaving behind the only strong system and tradition not subjected to misinterpretation- “the military-inclined types of indoctrination and training concepts” embedded inside the cadet corps. Thus, leaving behind a system and mindset that prioritizes parades and militaristic field training exercises more than academics and police simulation exercises.
Thus, to instill professionalism and accountability in the future leaders of the PNP is to institutionalize the system and academic bearing of the PNPA by focusing on three core areas: academics, leadership, and sports. These stabilize the non-responsive traditions and old systems engrained inside the academy. These three core areas are the same foundation of other institutionalized international academies such as the USMA, USNA, USCGA, and ADFA. Believing that these three core areas are to be prioritized in the police academy will undoubtedly change the PNP’s landscape to be clearly aligned with its mandate. A positive impact on the organization and the communities, while leaders influence the rank-and-file personnel.
Relatedly, enhanced infrastructure and technological advancement support the foundation of the academy’s charter and the general welfare of the cadets. PNPA houses roughly 1200 cadets at a given time from the study, sports, sleep, and nourishment periods; over the years, the existing camp facilities failed to cater wholly to these needs but survived based on what exists. This issue negatively impacted the cadets’ academics and welfare, making them adjust to the current “make-do” system and detaching their focus from their primary task of studying and training. Similarly, technology supports learning, as seen in advanced universities; PNPA, as a progressive police learning institution, must adapt to technological advancement. As a learning institution, research forms part of the structure; knowledge from research, thesis, articles, books, policies, doctrines and best practices are all found on the internet. Sadly, PNPA has no broad-based internet connection like fiber optics and solely relies on individual WIFI-based broadband. Fiber optics has been around since 1990; its potential is much faster (20 times faster than other connections), and it has a bigger bandwidth than other broadband options. Quality and stable internet connections support the institution’s learning process and academic structure. However, sadly, the police academy still yearns for this technological foundation of virtual connection to boost technological advancement and learning innovations.
Realistic Response to Setbacks
For Philippine policing to be at par with international policing standards, the government must invest in the existing source of commissioned officers. It must invest in PNPA’s quality education and training through an Institutionalized Autonomy of Academic Discretion, Fiscal Independence, and a Modernized Academy (enhanced infrastructure and logistics run by advanced technology). Academic freedom, for instance, includes the creation of a “corps of professors” whose primary task is to educate the cadets and other police trainees. This corps of professors will be members of the PNP, and their rank will vary depending on their educational level and expertise. Furthermore, the law must be clear; it has to put measures against abuse on the crisscrossing of careers from educators to joining the line officer ranks. This has been happening in the technical profession (medical, engineering, forensics, etc.), bending policies to integrate with the PNP line officers to become chief of police, leaving vacuum positions in their intended professions. Similarly, institutionalizing fiscal autonomy powers the PNPA objective and boost needed infrastructure and technology-based learning and training; however, the PNPA budget relies solely on the higher organization above its structure. In this case, its proposal, approval, and utilization depend on the acceptance of PPSC (before) and now the PNP. To limit bureaucratic procedures, the proposed annual budget and MOOE of the PNPA must be directly linked with DILG, its primary agency, just in the case of PMA, where its annual budget comes directly from the DND.
To realize genuine policing transformation, philippine policing needs a new law to institutionalize them, aligning the existing laws to be responsive to current trends and fix organizational gaps. For PNPA, a new law will strengthen the existing academic charter to attain its absolute academic freedom setting the academy as a higher learning institution distinguished from a common police training center or a police organization. A new law to institutionalize PNPA’s total fiscal autonomy aligned with its institutional mandate and objective and set long-term goals to cater to the community needs and the PNP organization. Thus, the PNPA Modernization Bill passed in Congress intends to realize a genuine professional and accountable police force oriented with the UN SDG and the Philippines’ “Ambisyon Natin 2040” and to institutionalize the education and training system of PNPA cadets. This new law will support the genuine PNP transformation program by calibrating the persisting out-modeled systems, culture, tradition, and mindset of the police force by going to the root source of police leaders- the PNP Academy. The PNPA Modernization Bill has recently been sponsored and submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation and approval. Thus, the future of 21st Philippine policing supporting “Ambisyon Natin 2040” now lies in the hands of the Honorable members of Congress and Senate for the new law to be approved by the President.
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Disclaimer
The views expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the position of the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine Government, or any non-government organization.
CSOP101 is a professional learning site for community policing advocates, practitioners, and supporters in changing the policing landscape. It is likewise an issue-based, related to or addressing nation-building. The views expressed within individual blog posts (police blog and academic) are those of the author and do not reflect any official position or that of the author’s employers. Any concerns regarding this blog post or resources should be directed in the first instance to byron.allatog012@gmail.com.
