View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Flinders Academic Commons Politics and Policing in the Philippines: Challenges to Police Reform1 Glenn Varona Introduction Writing about policing in the Philippines is not an easy task. This is in part due to the near absence of research on policing in that country. Indeed, in research presently being done by this writer on the Philippine National Police, it has been difficult looking for material or studies done about this institution in the literature. Thus, this research effort could be considered a new contribution to the body of policing studies. As a research effort, it is primarily a qualitative study that relies on semi‐structured interviews and a collaborative inquiry discussion. The interviews were carried out with both police officers and personnel as well as ordinary citizens in three regions of the Philippines: Metro Manila, Region VII; which is in the Central Philippines, and Region VIII; which is in the eastern‐central area of the country. There have been around 100 respondents from all three regions in fieldwork covering a six week time span. The last stage of the fieldwork in this study, which was carried out in July 2009, involved a collaborative inquiry discussion in a small rural municipality in Region VIII, since the object of this research effort had been to establish a model for better governance of policing through the design of a community‐ based, grassroots level mechanism towards police reform. Much of what is in this paper comes from the main findings of this study. 1 This article has been peer‐reviewed. fjhp | volume 26, 2010 | page 101 Policing in the Philippines has a history that extends at least as far as the Spanish colonial period, with the first organised bodies of police established along the militarised lines of the Spanish Guardia Civil by Royal Decree in 1852.1 However, the present day Philippine National Police owes its historical existence to a combination of Spanish and American colonial influences. The United States colonised the Philippines in 1898 as a result of the American victory over Spain in the Spanish‐American War.2 This colonising effort brought resistance from Filipino patriotic elements, who had only recently concluded a revolution against Spain and felt that the Philippines should be independent from all colonising powers.3 The resulting conflict with the United States ended in defeat for the field army of the Philippine resistance, but remnants of that army continued to fight all throughout the countryside, mostly as guerrillas. As the enlistments of the vast majority of American volunteer soldiers began expiring by early 1899, the American colonial establishment had to find ways of dealing with Filipino insurgents. The American solution to this problem led to the establishment of the Insular Constabulary, later renamed the Philippine Constabulary in 1901, under the command of a US Army captain, Henry T. Allen.4 This force, which had reached an armed strength of 3000 troopers by 1902, consisted of American military officers commanding enlisted Filipinos recruited from the pacified areas of the Philippine Islands.5 The 1 Campos, Cicero, ʹLaw enforcement policy strategy in the Republic of the Philippinesʹ, Police Studies: The International Review of Police Development, Vol. 14, 1991, p. 76. 2 Putzel, James, ʹWhy has democratisation been a weaker impulse in Indonesia and Malaysia than in the Philippines?ʹ Democratisation, D. Potter, et. al. (Eds), Malden: Polity Press, 1997, pp. 244‐245. 3 Agoncillo, Teodoro, Philippine History, Manila: Inang Wika Publishing, 1970, p. 70. 4 Hurley, Vic, Jungle Patrol: The Story of the Philippine Constabulary, New York: EP Dutton & Co., 1938, pp. 7, 13 & 26. 5 Gates, John, Schoolbooks and Krags: The United States Army in the Philippines, 1898‐ fjhp | volume 26, 2010 | page 102 Philippine Constabulary combined military organisation, methods and equipment with police powers and discretion. It became a tool for the colonisation and subjugation of the Filipinos under the United States, and it succeeded in defeating the formerʹs resistance against the latter. It would also become the core organisation around which the Philippineʹs post‐colonial military and police institutions would be formed. Indeed, after World War II and independence from the United States in 1946, it would become the main police institution that would, since it had both military and police powers, be used to deal with crime and disorder as well as internal security. The latter particularly involved suppressing dissent, fighting communist insurgency, dealing with Muslim separatism and, during the Marcos Dictatorship (1972 to 1986), enforcing martial law.6 Since the Philippinesʹ communist insurgencies since the 1930ʹs had always been due to colonial era land‐tenure problems, the Philippine Constabulary would become the enforcer of the political and economic power of the dominant landed elite, the class that dominated (and arguably still dominates) the Philippine political system.7 The Philippine Constabulary would eventually be given operational and administrative control over the civilian police institution of the Philippines, the Integrated National Police, in 1976, when President Marcos, as part of his martial law policy, wanted full control over both the military and police and preclude dissent within the ranks of the security services.8 It placed the civilian 1902, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1973, p. 240. 6 Miranda, Felipe, ʹThe militaryʹ, The Philippines after Marcos, R. May & F. Nemenzo, (eds), Kent: Crown Helm, 1985, p. 92. 7 Goodno, James, Philippines: Land of Broken Promises, New Jersey: Zed Books, 1991, p. 34. 8 Abueva, Jose, ʹPhilippine ideologies and national developmentʹ, Government and Politics of the Philippines, R. P. de Guzman, M. A. Reforma & E. M. Panganiban (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 56. fjhp | volume 26, 2010 | page 103 Integrated National Police under the control of the commanding general of the Philippine Constabulary, which was part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.9 This system would lead to many years of abuse, corruption, politicisation and patronage politics in the security services (particularly the Philippine Constabulary), and human rights abuses. Indeed, in the years immediately after the declaration of martial law in 1972, the Philippine Constabulary arrested 67,000 Filipinos on nothing more than political grounds, which is to say that they opposed the Marcos Regime.10 Politics and the Philippine National Police The Philippine Constabulary would eventually be transformed into the Philippine National Police in 1990, with the enactment of Republic Act 6975 by the Philippine Congress.11 This was the outcome of the restoration of Philippine Democracy after the EDSA Revolution of 1986. The EDSA Revolution brought about a new, democratic 1987 Constitution to replace the Marcos Era authoritarian institutions. One of the 1987 Constitutionʹs provisions demanded the establishment of a single national police service that was to be civilian in character. Republic Act 6975, however, simply abolished the Philippine Constabulary and changed its name into the Philippine National Police. The military commissions of Constabulary officers and the enlistments of its other ranks were taken out of the militaryʹs linear lists and were legally transformed into civilian designations. Constabulary personnel who chose to stay with the Armed Forces of the Philippines were allowed that option and were absorbed into the Philippine Army. Integrated National Police personnel were 9 Federal Research Division, ʹPhilippines: Country Studies Seriesʹ, Washington DC: United States Library of Congress, 2009, p. 1. 10 Goodno, Philippines: Land of Broken Promises, p. 67. 11 Nolledo, Jose, The New Police Act: Republic Act 8551, Manila: Rex Bookstore, 1998, pp. 32 & 72. fjhp | volume 26, 2010 | page 104 absorbed into the new Philippine National Police easily enough, as they had always been civilian police, albeit, previously under military operational control. In effect therefore, the Philippine National Police began as an essentially re‐badged and redefined Philippine Constabulary; legally civilian in character, but still military in its real nature. The Philippine National Police at present retains many of the problems and issues of the old Philippine Constabulary, namely that it is a highly politicised, highly militarised and institutionally corrupt. Its problems with politicisation stem from a number of reasons, including its colonial origins. The first of these is that under the Philippine administrative system, police forces at all levels, from the national to the local, are under some form of political control. For instance, the 1987 Constitution stipulates that all appointments to senior military and police ranks and positions (from the rank of a military colonel or its police equivalent; that of police senior superintendent upwards to the highest rank and position) are made by the President of the Philippines, subject to confirmation in a Congressional body known as the Commission on Appointments. Furthermore, the same Constitution grants the President authority and discretion to supervise, control, deploy and employ in the interest of public safety both the military and the police as part of executive commander in chief and public safety powers. These powers grant the President broad and sweeping authority to declare martial law, wage war, deal with