Reorganizing Philippine Constabulary as National Police

Abolitions and reorganization

Section 1 repeals Commonwealth Act No. 88, titled “An Act to provide for the organization and maintenance of a State Police Force.”
Section 2 orders the President to establish a national police force by detailing from the army and organizing the Philippine Constabulary as an independent unit, or under such department of the Government as the President may determine.
The national police force established under Section 2 continues to be known as the Philippine Constabulary.
Section 2 grants the Constabulary all police and law enforcement powers, functions, and responsibilities previously belonging to the Constabulary Division of the army or previously devolved upon it by law and regulations.
Section 2 removes from the Constabulary any powers, functions, and responsibilities military in nature that previously pertained to the Provost Marshal General.

Police powers, duties, and arrests

Section 2 declares that Constabulary members are peace officers empowered to prevent and suppress brigandage, unlawful assemblies, riots, insurrections, and other breaches of the peace and violations of the law.
Section 2 empowers Constabulary members to make arrests and seizures according to law.
Section 2 requires Constabulary members to execute any lawful warrant or order of arrest issued against any person or persons for violation of law.
Section 7 makes it the duty of the Constabulary, under the supervision of the President or a department head, to perform duties and exercise authority with respect to local police bodies as authorized by law or regulation.
Section 7 requires cooperation with and assistance to all city, municipal, and other duly established bodies of local police in the Philippines.

Composition, transfer, and continuity

Section 2 authorizes the President to include such numbers of officers, enlisted men, and civil employees as in his judgment may be necessary.
Section 3 provides that officers and enlisted men detached from the army and transferred to the national police force shall, after January first, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, be separately paid, maintained, and supported.
Section 3 states that transferred personnel shall not be counted as part of such strength as may from time to time be authorized for the army.
Section 3 preserves identity and legal status by providing that transferred personnel retain their identity and legal rights and obligations as officers and enlisted men of the army.
Section 3 authorizes the President, at discretion, to transfer any officer or enlisted man at any time to or from the army and to the Constabulary, respectively.
Section 3 provides that all service performed in the Constabulary counts for all legal purposes as military service.
Section 3 subjects all individuals of the Constabulary to orders and regulations approved by the President for administration, conduct, and control, and permits assignment to positions with titles authorized by the President in the organization.

Military versus civil character and uniform

Section 4 requires the uniform of the Philippine Constabulary to be different from that of the army, as the President may prescribe.
Section 4 prohibits any person not a member of the Constabulary from wearing the same or a closely similar uniform.
Section 4 treats violation as a misdemeanor punishable upon conviction by a fine not exceeding five hundred pesos or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both, at the discretion of the court.

Assets transfer and property accounting

Section 5 authorizes the President to transfer from the army to the Constabulary such armament, weapons, equipment, supplies, clothing, buildings, real estate, and other appurtenances as may be necessary for proper organization.
Section 5 limits transfers to those that will not interfere with the army’s legal and necessary activities, duties, and responsibilities.
Section 5 requires that upon transfer, all property involved be removed from army accounts and charged against and accounted for by the Constabulary.
Section 5 authorizes the President, within the limits of appropriations or future appropriations, to procure quarters, equipment, and supplies for efficient administration and functioning of the Constabulary, including armament motor vehicles, and other items necessary in the President’s judgment.

Transition of personnel and local police bodies

Section 6 provides that, upon approval of the Act, members of the state police and personnel appointed under Commonwealth Act No. 88 cease to hold office under those appointments.
Section 6 requires return, in so far as practicable, to the governmental or other positions each person held immediately preceding the appointments.
Section 6 orders the reorganization of provincial, city or other local fire and police bodies or provincial guards removed from local control by Commonwealth Act No. 88.
Section 6 requires that reorganization be governed by regulations on appointment, organization, and administration that the corresponding head of department may prescribe with approval of the President.
Section 6 mandates that reorganized bodies be returned to the control of the appropriate municipal, city, and provincial officials, exercised under supervision of the corresponding Department Head.
Section 6 directs that, if and when practicable, members who ceased to hold office and are civil service eligibles and otherwise qualified shall be appointed to the new national police organization.

Constabulary policy orders and removal power

Section 7 requires Constabulary members to carry out policies, orders, and regulations promulgated by the President for inspecting, advising, training, and assisting local officials in police matters.
Section 7 provides that these presidential orders, regulations, and policies have the force of law with respect to all concerned.
Section 7 authorizes removal: any member of a city or local police or any officer or enlisted man of the Constabulary found guilty, after proper investigation, of violating such policies, orders, and regulations may be removed from service by the President.

Appropriations and funding limits

Section 8 appropriates five hundred thousand pesos for expenses incident to separation of the Constabulary from the army, separate housing of Constabulary headquarters, and purchases of additional motor and other equipment, supplies, and property essential to efficiency, as directed by the President.
Section 8 provides that during the remainder of 19 hundred and thirty-eight, salaries and allowances for quarters and rations of personnel transferred from the army to the Constabulary continue to be paid from army appropriations.
Section 8 appropriates three million, two hundred and fifty thousand pesos for the year nineteen hundred and thirty-nine from any excess of the actual collections over the estimated ordinary income of the National Government for payment of salaries and allowances of personnel and all other expenses of every kind of the Philippine Constabulary.
Section 8 provides that if no excess in actual collections is realized, or if it is insufficient, the expenses that cannot be covered continue to be charged against the authorized appropriations for the Philippine Army.
Section 8 requires that for all years subsequent to nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, the budget of the Philippine Constabulary be presented to the National Assembly in detailed estimates and carried under a separate heading titled “Philippine Constabulary.”
Section 8 prohibits any transfer of funds between the amounts carried under the “Philippine Constabulary” heading and amounts carried under other purposes in annual army appropriation acts.