MANILA, Philippines -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines has turned over ownership of 286 parcels of land totaling 1,160 hectares spread all over the country to the Philippine National Police.
One of the properties is the site of the PNP headquarters, Camp Crame, in Quezon City.
The turnover was made in simple signing ceremonies of memorandum of agreement inside Camp Crame on Friday. In attendance were Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and police and military officers.
With the turnover, Puno said the PNP can now implement infrastructure development on these sites including on-base housing programs for policemen.
The 33-hectare Camp Crame has been the property of the AFP as the PNP was once the Constabulary branch of the military.
Other AFP properties transferred to the PNP are Camp Panopio and Camp Caringal in Quezon City; Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, the Regional Headquarters of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO); and Camp Castañeda in Silang, Cavite, the training facility of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA).
Still others are also being used by the PNP as Regional or Provincial Police Offices, Provincial Mobile Group Headquarters, and training facilities.
Prior to the establishment of the PNP in 1991, these properties were once the Regional Command, Provincial Command or Company Headquarters of the defunct Philippine Constabulary.
According to Puno, it was important for the PNP to acquire lawful ownership of these properties in order to initiate infrastructure developments in these facilities, particularly on-base housing for police personnel.
“The PNP on-base housing which we have funds and great need for, will now be possible. Before, we could not do housing programs within these properties as authorized by the president because we are not in a position to turn over titles and take possession of property,” Puno said.
But with the agreement, Puno said it was now possible to implement the PNP’s housing projects.
“This is an early Christmas gift for the PNP. With this memorandum of agreement, we can now swiftly implement the construction of more housing programs for police personnel without having fear of having problems later on.”
For his part, PNP Director General Avelino Razon said “the PNP welcomes the formal transfer of these properties after 18 years that we had been working to officially acquire these facilities to implement our own program in the PNP.”
Puno also said the transfer should have been done as far back as 1991 with the passage of the Republic Act 6975 or the Philippine National Police Act.
“Time passed and nothing was done about it.” He said work on the turnover began in earnest two years ago.
Prior to the establishment of the PNP in 1991 police elements in the country were under the defunct Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP) which was part of the AFP, and under the respective local government units prior to the establishment of the PC-INP under martial law.
The formation of the PNP called for the establishment of a police organization that is “civilian in character and national in scope.” Many of its current key officers were trained as military officers at the Philippine Military Academy.
