The police in the Philippines is not the product of democracy. The Philippine Constabulary (PC), from which the Integrated National Police (INP) and later the Philippine National Police (PNP, as a merger of PC and INP) was created, is a gendarmerie created by US colonists. 1/

PC is shaped in the tradition of the Guardia Civil. Both PC and the Guardia Civil are instruments of repression and not of protection. And because they are, abuse is ingrained in their DNA - because targeted abuse is an effective political weapon against organized dissent. 2/

Sure, abuse generates rage, but it also wears down the morale of the populace - after all, no one wants to be first in the line of fire. This is why Guardia Civil was able to demobilize incipient revolts, & why PC was able to snuff out the last of the Katipunan. Through abuse. 3/

After WWII, PC was unleashed vs. Hukbalahap. During Martial Law, vs. CPP-NPA-NDF. In both cases, it is consistent in its role as an anti-insurgency force. Crime is only addressed insofar as it holds back rebels. Whenever crime is a problem for rebels, it was left to fester. 4/

PC (and the INP - which is its more centralized skeleton) survived the fall of Marcos, with its Chief even becoming Defense Secretary and later President. This is because even the liberal elite understands the role of the Police - counter-insurgency. 5/

When the PNP was created from the merger of the PC and the INP - a mere organizational change but under the guise of "civilianization" - commanders of the PNP still came from the PMA, and were mistahs of the same cabal that controlled the military. 6/

This brings us to the here and now. Until we reform the PNP and remove counter-insurgency from its DNA, then it will always reproduce the culture of abuse, because abuse is a political weapon, not an individual failing. 7/

We must abandon the genderamerie concept, replace it w/ alternative models of community policing: peace & order forces living in areas they maintain, at the lowest geographic level possible: the barangay. Police, as w/ other NGAs under LGC of 1991, must be thoroughly devolved. 8/

The only way to truly have a Police for the People is to give the police to the People - let LGUs, via local peace and order councils, collectively manage the police, and let the police come from the People themselves. The State must shake off the counter-insurgency model. 9/

House Speaker Velasco is facing a historical moment. Congress can abolish the PNP, as it did with the PC and the INP. It can create a highly decentralized police force under the control of barangays while maintaining a smaller central unit vs. organized crime. 10/10