Policy, purpose, and strategic intent
- The issuance is driven by the need to address continuing organized syndicated crimes that undermine the anti-crime campaign and affect peace and order and economic conditions.
- It prioritizes a sustained, relentless, and dedicated campaign to minimize organized and syndicated crimes and neutralize their protectors in government.
- The issuance emphasizes focus and substantive results by assigning a specifically tasked anti-organized crime unit to investigate and prosecute criminal syndicates and their protectors.
- The issuance requires identification and effective prosecution of criminal groups and their protectors in government through efficient intelligence and counter-intelligence efforts.
Creation, organizational placement, and leadership
- Section 1 creates a Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and a Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force under the Office of the President.
- Section 2 provides that the Task Force is composed of selected PNP/AFP members and representatives from other branches of the government.
- Section 2 provides that the Task Force is headed by a qualified senior law enforcement officer appointed by the President.
- Section 2 provides that the head is assisted by a Deputy Chief for Operations, a Deputy Chief for Administration, and a Functional Staff.
- Section 2 defines the Functional Staff to include the Administrative/Logistics Division, Operations Division, Technical Division, and the Legal and Investigation Division.
Task Force powers and functions
- Section 3(a) requires the Task Force to prepare and implement a fast track anti-crime and anti-graft and corruption action agenda and adopt measures for an effective and efficient anti-crime drive.
- Section 3(b) authorizes the Task Force to conduct intelligence and counter-intelligence operations to identify government officials and employees, crime syndicates, and their cohorts involved in criminal activities.
- Section 3(c) authorizes the Task Force to cause or direct the immediate arrest, investigation, and speedy prosecution of crime syndicates, government officials and employees, and their cohorts, with due regard to constitutional processes.
- Section 3(d) requires the Task Force to refer cases to the Department of Justice and/or other appropriate law enforcement agencies for investigation or prosecution, as deemed proper and necessary.
- Section 3(e) requires the Task Force to follow up the progress of ongoing investigation and prosecution of cases taken cognizance of by the Task Force.
- Section 3(f) empowers the Task Force to recommend the passage of appropriate anti-crime issuances and legislations.
- Section 3(g) allows the Task Force to select and recruit personnel from within the PNP, AFP, and other law enforcement agencies for assignment to the Task Force, subject to conformity with the concerned agency.
- Section 3(h) authorizes the Task Force to enlist the assistance of any department, bureau, office, agency, or instrumentality of the government (including government-owned and/or controlled corporations) and to use their respective personnel, facilities, and resources for prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of perpetrators.
- Section 3(i) authorizes, subject to existing laws, the grant of monetary rewards or incentives to informants giving vital information leading to successful prosecution of criminal offenders and corrupt government officials.
- Section 3(j) directs coordination with the Witness Protection Security and Benefits Program Committee of the Department of Justice to evaluate and assess witnesses who may qualify under Republic Act No. 6981, the Witness Protection and Benefit Act.
- Section 3(k) authorizes, subject to President approval, authorized access to documents, installations, and facilities for specific crime investigation over government agencies and government-owned or controlled corporations.
- Section 3(l) authorizes the recruitment of civilian personnel and the enlistment of their services for intelligence gathering efforts.
Crimes covered and defining “organized/syndicated crime group”
- Section 4(a) grants the Task Force authority over crimes committed by organized/syndicated crime groups, including (but not limited to) gunrunning, illegal logging, robbery/hold-up, kidnapping for ransom, white slavery, illegal recruitment, carnapping, smuggling, piracy, drug trafficking, falsification of land titles and other government forms, large scale swindling, film piracy, counterfeiting, and bank frauds.
- Section 4(b) grants the Task Force authority over crimes considered and punished as heinous crimes under Republic Act No. 7659 (Heinous Crime Law).
- Section 4(c) grants the Task Force authority over crimes committed by members of the Philippine National Police and/or the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
- Section 4(d) grants the Task Force authority over crimes committed by officials and employees of government agencies including government-owned and controlled corporations.
- Section 4(e) grants the President authority to determine from time to time other criminal offenses covered by the Task Force.
- Section 4 defines an organized/syndicated crime group as a group of two or more persons collaborating, confederating, or mutually helping one another in the commission of any crime and sometimes enjoying protection of people in government and public service.
Commission composition, supervision, and forum role
- Section 5 establishes the Commission to be composed of:
- the President as Chairman;
- the Secretary of Justice as Member;
- the National Security Adviser as Member;
- the Undersecretary of Interior and Local Government as Member;
- the Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines as Member;
- the Director-General, Philippine National Police as Member; and
- Four (4) representatives from the Private Sector to be appointed by the President as Member.
- Section 5 provides that the Commission exercises general control and supervision over the Task Force.
- Section 5 requires the Commission to enlist assistance of civic and other similar associations and provide a forum for continuing consultation among concerned sectors to formulate policies recommended to the President in the form of issuances and legislation.
Agency assistance, command and control, and coordination
- Section 6 requires all government agencies and instrumentalities—including the listed agencies—to assist the Task Force in implementing its mandate, including:
- PNP, NBI, NPS, BID, BIR, Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (EIIB), Bureau of Customs (BOC), NICA, AFP, LTO, Forest Management Bureau (FMB), National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), NCSO, LRA, POEA, and other agencies the Task Force may find necessary.
- Section 7(a) provides that the Force Chief reports and is directly responsible to the President.
- Section 7(b) provides that the Force Chief has immediate supervision and control over all units of the Task Force and is authorized to designate duties and functions of personnel under him.
- Section 7(c) provides that component units from the PNP, AFP, DOJ, and selected/chosen representatives of other government agencies are attached to the Force Chief by their respective mother units, and the Force Chief has direct operational and supervisory authority over these personnel.
- Section 11 enjoins strong and intensified focus on organized/syndicated crimes and heinous and related offenses to be addressed by the Task Force during the government’s anti-crime campaign.
- Section 11 affirms that the PNP remains the primary general law enforcement agency pursuant to Republic Act No. 6875, as amended, and requires close coordination and cooperation among the Chief of the Force, the Chief, PNP, and other law enforcement heads to ensure synergy.
- Section 11 enjoins vertical and lateral coordination among operating units consistent with security needs to prevent compromise in police operations.
Funding, resources, dissolved predecessor bodies
- Section 8 requires providing the Task Force, subject to usual audit, an initial annual allocation of ONE HUNDRED TWENTY MILLION PESOS (P120,000,000.00) drawn from the President’s Contingency Fund and from government’s savings.
- Section 8 provides that appropriations for succeeding years are incorporated in the budget proposal for the Office of the President.
- Section 8 requires that the Commission be provided with an initial funding from the respective agencies represented in the Commission, and that succeeding-year appropriations be incorporated in the Office of the President budget proposal.
- Section 9 dissolves and deactivates the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) and the Presidential Task Force on Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence (PTFICI) effective immediately.
- Section 9 requires that all properties and equipment of the PACC and PTFICI be turned over to the Task Force.
Operating guidelines and reporting
- Section 10 requires the Task Force to adopt operating guidelines in coordination with command law enforcement agencies necessary to implement the Executive Order, subject to approval of the President.
- Section 10 requires the Task Force to submit to the President through the Commission reports of its activities with appropriate recommendations for the information and guidance of the President.
Related legal references and cross-program coordination
- The issuance anchors the continued role of the PNP as primary general law enforcement under Republic Act No. 6875, as amended (Section 11).
- The issuance coordinates witness assessment with the Witness Protection Security and Benefits Program Committee under Republic Act No. 6981 (Section 3(j)).
- The issuance covers heinous crimes as defined and punished under Republic Act No. 7659 (Section 4(b)).