THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
INTRODUCTION
The creation of the Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police (IAS) marks a very special period in our country’s history. With this, it has also commemorated our country’s positive step towards internal peace and stability by realizing and acknowledging that man-made institutions are still vulnerable to the failings of man and therefore, have a need for a watchful and objective eye of an independent and impartial body.
Before the institutionalization of the Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police, the PNP served as the country’s stalwart of security and keepers of the peace by "enforcing the law, preventing and controlling crimes, maintaining peace and order, and ensuring public safety and internal security with the active support of the community" within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Over the years, we have been blessed with responsible men and women who made sure that the objectives of the PNP were upheld. The institution’s main function, which is to "maintain peace and order and take all the necessary steps to ensure public safety," has been a struggle to uphold and a constant challenge to the brave guardians of the PNP.
Being one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the world, the PNP indeed has an almost Herculean task to fulfil with an equally growing population to protect. The PNP acts not as a reactive institution, but as a responsive one that maintains peace by keeping peace. The PNP wishes to be vitamins to a healthy body rather than a curative to an ailing one.
And with organizational reform, neighbourhood partnerships, education and training as its three core thrusts, the PNP knows that the best way to achieve its objectives is to work with the community and recognize the agency’s organizational structure.
Under the leadership of then President Fidel V. Ramos, Republic Act No. 8551 was signed into law. It stated that "An