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PNPA HISTORY
One can easily recall that a few years back our policemen were hired almost purely on the basis of their personal relations with certain politicians. The police service then required no entry level standards, no training, no consistent promotional policies and no code of conduct. Members of our country’s city and municipal force were simply hired, sworn in, issued guns and equipment, assign a beat and told to police our communities. Of course, we achieve a substantial improvement with the passage on September 6, 1966 of Republic Act 4864, otherwise known as the Police Act of 1966. This law provided for the establishment of a Police Commission (later renamed National Police Commission) and of an integrated and uniform system of basic and specialized police training. But the set up was not without its concomitant pitfalls. Training was limited to police service personnel only. It did not include the fire and jail services. What is more the system itself lent to locally based, individualized and separate local police units that lead to the mark preponderance of political warlords’ private armies over the police forces and the use of policemen by unscrupulous politicians. It was mainly for these reasons that we opted to unite all city and municipal police, fire and jail services.
Immediately after the promulgation of PD 1184, then the Chief of Constabulary and concurrently Director General of the Integrated National Police, Major General Fidel V. Ramos created a study committee to prepare the corresponding feasibility study and all other prerequisites for the activation of the envisioned police academy. In February 1978, General Ramos recommended to Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile, then Secretary of National Defense, the activation of the Philippine National Police Academy. As a result of that recommendation DND order No. 3 was issued on May 25, 1978 organizing and activating the Philippine National Police Academy effective June 12, 1978 in line with the national objective to upgrade the law enforcement service in the country.
But the Academy started without a definite site of its own. It was formally inaugurated on June 30, 1978 on Fort Bonifacio where it had to share headquarters with the Integrated National Police Training Command. Defense Deputy Minister Carmelo Z. Barbero was the guest of honor and speaker during the inauguration. From then on, development followed one after the other in quick succession. Formal academic instructions started on July 17, 1978 until the Academy moved to Camp Vicente Lim, Calamba, Laguna on August 19, 1978. During its initial years, the Academy limited the admission for the two year Bachelor of Science in Public Safety to qualified members of INP the only.
One of the significant development that happened was on January 15, 1981 when the PNPA received its academic charter through the promulgation of Presidential Decree No. 1780, otherwise known as the Philippine National Police Academy Charter of 1981. It was this decree that elevated the academy to its status as the premier educational institution of the Integrated National Police, now the Philippine National Police.
On 13 April 1995, the Academy moved to Camp General Mariano N. Castaņeda in Silang, Cavite as its new and permanent home. Today, the Academy stands at the apex of professionalization as the primary institution for PNP, BJMP and BFP officers. |
We effected a series of police integrated laws that finally culminated on August 8, 1975 with the effectivity of Presidential Decree 765 constituting the Integrated National Police or INP. We formed the police / fire / jail services into a single unified organization and transferred the responsibility of training all INP personnel to from the National Police Commission on July 1, 1976 to the Integrated National Police Training Command (INPTC) which, prior to the enactment of RA 6975, has supervised and controlled all basic and specialized police, fire and jail service trainings in the 13 regional training centers throughout the county.
But the PD 765 was only a beginning. On August 26, 1977, we came out with Presidential Decree 1184, otherwise known as the INP Personnel Professionalization Law of 1977 that provided for the creation of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA).
Pursuant to the DND Order, General Orders No. 23-P Headquarters Philippine Constabulary / Integrated National Police, dated 23 June 1978 formally announce such activation.
The speed that characterized the creation and establishment of Philippine National Police Academy was a clear indication of the important role of the institution in the necessary development of professional police officers in the country. In fact, its actual operations began even before its formal inauguration. It had to conduct entrance examination for cadetship on May 28 and June 4, 1978 to select the best applicants for its first batch of cadets that, two years later, comprised Class 1980, the pioneer graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy.
This means that persons who were not in the INP service could not be appointed as cadets of the Academy. However, when it was about to complete its third year of existence, the Academy modified its admission requirements to include civilian applicants or those outside of the INP provided they possess all other qualifications for admission.
With the passage of RA 6975, establishing the Philippine National Police (former PC-INP) under the reorganized Department of Interior and Local Government, the Academy became a primary component of the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) which was created to assume overall responsibility for the training, human resource development and continuing education of all personnel of the PNP, Fire and Jail Bureaus. The academy, however, retained its autonomous status by virtue of its Academic Charter pursuant to PD 1780.