Integrated National Police

Development

Until the mid-1970s, the independent city and municipal police forces took charge of maintaining peace and order on a local level, and when necessary was reinforced by the Philippine Constabulary, the national gendarmerie that was a major branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The National Police Commission was established in 1966 to improve the professionalism and training of local police and exercised some supervisory authority over the police.

During martial law in the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos, several presidential decrees were amalgamating the police, fire, and jail services of the 1,500 cities and municipalities into a unified national police and civil defense formation, the Integrated National Police (INP), beginning in 1974. On August 8, 1975, Presidential Decree 765 officially established the joint command structure of the Philippine Constabulary and Integrated National Police. The arrangement became known as the Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP), and INP became also an element of the Armed Forces since it was then under supervision of the Constabulary. The commanding general of the Constabulary was also concurrently the Director General of the INP, responsible to the Minister of National Defense and to the President.

Three years afterward, the Philippine National Police Academy was established to train police officers.

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Criticism

The Integrated National Police was the subject of criticism, and officers were accused of involvement in illegal activities, violent acts and abuse, with corruption being a frequent charge. To save their public image, the government sponsored highly publicised programs to identify and punish police offenders, and training designed to raise their standard of appearance, conduct, and performance.

Organization

The INP, as a paramilitary national police force and due to its joint command with the PC, used the rank system of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in force at that time in keeping with the provisions of Presidential Decree No. 1184 (the Integrated National Police Personnel Professionalization Law of 1977).

As an organization that is a part of the PC, the Commanding General PC, since 1975, was also Director General of the INP and its 13 regional commanders serving as regional chiefs of police responsible for the 73 Provincial INP Commands, which in turn, were responsible for the operations of the police districts, city and municipal police stations, substations and precincts under their control. In Metro Manila, the Philippine Constabulary Metropolitan Command was concurrent chief of the Metropolitan (Manila) Police Force, underwhich the capital's 4 police districts were under his supervision, which in turn were organized into the city and town police stations and subordinate units. Fire and jail protection units were under the overall control of the national headquarters thru regional commands.

Ranks

The Integrated National Police adopted a paramilitary-styled ranking classification based on Presidential Decree No. 1184 (the Integrated National Police Personnel Professionalization Law of 1977) issued by then-President Ferdinand Marcos as part of the joint command it shared with the PC, which began in 1975.

Police

Commonly, a Police Brigadier General was a chief of a police district. Even though that is the highest ranking, there some personnel promoted exceeding to the hierarchy rank stated in the law, such as Alfredo Lim being promoted to Police Major General, due to the fact that time, Chief, PC/DG-INP are rose to the rank of Lieutenant General.

Office of Fire Protection

In the Office of the Fire Service (a branch of INP), its national chief was a Fire Brigadier General starting 1990s.

List of Director Generals

The following Director Generals, INP are concurrently the Chief of the Philippine Constabulary.

Merger

On New Year's Day 1991, the INP was subsumed into the PC to form the Philippine National Police (PNP), which took responsibility for most former INP functions including the fire and penal services, The PNP assumed responsibility for the counterinsurgency effort from the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 1993.