4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan is batting for the passage of new legislation that would strengthen the Philippine National Police Academy as a self-governing public higher educational institution (HEI).
He filed House Bill No. 3507 or the proposed PNPA Charter of 2022 to build up the school that produces commissioned lieutenants for the country’s 202,000-strong police force.
“In the years ahead, we are counting on the PNPA to produce the best and the brightest law enforcement officers imbued with exceptional leadership qualities and the highest standards of professional competence and personal integrity,” he said.
The bill guarantees the PNPA would enjoy academic freedom in accordance with the 1987 Constitution’s mandate for all higher learning institutions to determine for themselves “who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught, and who may be admitted to study.”
All PNPA graduates earn a Bachelor of Science in Public Safety degree, and are then commissioned as police lieutenants, or as inspectors of the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
The Commission on Higher Education chairperson, the National Police Commission vice chairperson, and the PNPA Alumni Association Inc. chairperson would also sit as board trustees under the measure.
The rest of the trustees would be composed of the chairpersons of the House committee on higher and technical education; Senate committee on higher, technical, and vocational education; House committee on public order and safety; and the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs.
The PNPA currently does not have a governing board. It is being supervised by a “command group” composed of a director, a deputy director, and a chief of staff, who are all police generals.