The Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) was established to train future police officers in public safety, including ensuring local peace and order, and law enforcement.
In 1991, then President Corazon Aquino signed Republic Act No. 6975, establishing the PNP, which was distinguished from the Armed Forces of the Philippines in that it was national in scope but civilian in character.
RA 6975 also made the PNPA a premier institution for the training, human resource development and continuing education of all police, fire and jail personnel.
PNPA cadets are trained to be public safety officers, working closely with communities, while Philippine Military Academy (PMA) students are trained to become officers in the military, whose job is to defend the country against internal and external threats.
The law was fully implemented the following year, with the PMA Tanglaw-Diwa Class of 1992 becoming the last batch of military graduates joining the PNP.
But the last PMA graduates to bow out of police service will not leave until 2026, when their batch reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56.
The PNPA is tasked with undertaking preparatory education and professional training for the three uniformed bureaus of the Department of the Interior and Local Government: the PNP, Bureau of Fire Protection, and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
Entering the police force seems palatable to the PMA because PNPA cadets become inspectors (lieutenants) upon completion of the four-year public safety course.
The new inspectors are one rank ahead of their PMA counterparts, who become second lieutenants upon graduation and are expected to join the fighting against communist insurgents and Moro secessionist rebels.
While there has been a notable decline in the number of applicants for admission into the PMA over the years, the PNPA has been attracting as many as 30,000 applicants a year.
Only 300 police applicants will eventually qualify, but this number is expected to go down further to 200 as the “mortality rate” reaches 100 for the duration of the four-year course.
Several PNP officers claim that this could be one of the reasons why PMA graduates have been pushing for the reentry of military-trained officers into the police force.
In the past, the PMA was able to recruit the best and the brightest high school graduates because of the prospect of joining either the military or the police.–Inquirer Research
Source: Inquirer Archives