AFTER 21 meetings, a technical working group (TWG) of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety has recently approved the draft-substitute bill reorganizing and modernizing the Philippine National Police (PNP).
TWG Chairman and Party-list Rep. Samuel D. Pagdilao of ACT-CIS said that the group formally turned over the copy of the draft-substitute bill to United Negros Alliance Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer of Negros Occidental, committee chairman, last week.
“We have belabored and had 21 TWG proceedings and discussions in order to come up with this consolidated bill. We’ve been delayed by circumstances beyond our control. There have been changes in the PNP leadership, and every change introduced changes to the bill, as well,” Pagdilao said.
According to Pagdilao, the delay was also partly caused by the varying views of the National Police Commission and PNP on certain aspects of the draft substitute bill.
“With the appointment of a permanent PNP chief and after having our last TWG meeting, we now have the copy of the consolidated bill for submission to the mother committee which can now start deliberating on it,” said Pagdilao, a retired police general and former director of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Ferrer, for his part, said that his panel would discuss the bill soon.
“We are now in the position to discuss the substitute bill in the mother committee,” Ferrer said.
The bill outlines the six components of the PNP Reorganization and Modernization namely, organizational development; human-resource development; doctrine development; infrastructure development; equipment acquisition; and financial development.
The organization development aspect includes powers and functions; rank classification; organizational structure; national support units; other key positions; general qualifications for appointment; and creation of the position of patrol officer.
Whereas, the human-resource development aspect covers manpower build-up and training, transfer of jurisdiction of certain police learning institutions to the PNP and implementation; and doctrine and operational manual development.
For infrastructure and equipment development and modernization, these include infrastructure development and modernization; equipment acquisition and modernization; and procurement system.
As to the financial development aspect, this includes the PNP Modernization Act Trust Fund; austerity and use of savings; and exemption from value added tax and customs duties.