THE DISRUPTOR

PNP Chief Rommel Marbil is not afraid to go against the flow

- By Cecile J. Baltasar

On April 1, 2024, upon his appointment as the Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, it was clear to Police Gen Rommel Francisco Marbil that the PNP needed a paradigm shift. And so this was what he set out to create from day one of being head of the biggest government organization in the country.

Not one to perform any job on autopilot, Marbil, 55, immediately got to work on three main goals: establish reforms within PNP, educate the entire police force on their rights by law, and give them and their families medical benefits. By the time he sat with members of the media in the first week of December, eight months after his appointment as the head of PNP, Marbil had already ticked all three objectives off his to-do list.

But he's not done yet.

Marbil posits that any lasting changes in the PNP needs to take root for three to five years. Otherwise, it won't stick. He is, after all, introducing adjustments in the operations of an organization that has 239,274 members—227,010 uniformed and 12,264 non-uniformed personnel (NUP).

Marbil's focus now is to plant seeds that, he hopes, will bear much fruit beyond his retirement in February, 2025.

SYSTEMIC ADJUSTMENTS

"We're trying to flatten the organization to focus on our people's accountability and specialization," says Marbil, who, prior to his current post, headed PNP's Directorate for Comptrollership, and, before that, headed the Eastern Visayas regional police and the PNP Highway Patrol Group.

"Magagaling ang police natin, but they're not dynamic. We want a dynamic police force." He adds, "We're trying to improve our systems by putting accountability on our people. Dito, not even the commander can dictate [our people's every action]." If done right, this will also remove opportunities of corruption within the organization.