Jonvic Remulla gets CA nod as DILG chief, vows police and governance reforms
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmed the appointment of Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Wednesday, November 20.
Remulla was appointed by President Ferdinand Marcoos Jr. in October following the resignation of former Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Benjamin Abalos, who will run for senator in the 2025 midterm elections.
Remulla’s confirmation was unopposed by CA members.
Asked about some of his proposed reforms in the DILG, Remulla said he is planning to streamline police generals, reiterating that there are still too many of them.
Remulla explained that while the police force came from the military, it was a civilian force whose promotion rules fell under the Civil Service Commission.
Military personnel are promoted every five years, while civil service rules allows promotions every three years.
This has led to a congestion, with some generals having the same rank as their superiors.
“We have 153 generals, and a lot of them are redundant. And I think we've had consultations, we've been talking to them, and I think we can streamline this down to maybe less than 100 as of current,” Remulla said.
The new DILG chief has previously announced he was thinking of trimming down police generals down to 25. This caused a stir in the PNP, but Remulla said that this was his intent. Remulla only wanted to start the conversation.
Remulla also said that there should be upgrades to the Local Government Code, primarily the computation of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
The IRA is the allotment that a local government unit gets from the national government.
“I think everyone here who has served in local government sees a great question mark every time an IRA is passed down to a province,” Remulla said.
However, he did not expound on how he plans to change these computations.
Remulla, who was the governor of Cavite prior to his appointment, is also eyeing the expansion of governors’ roles when it comes to waste management.
“If you look at the local government code, it is the responsibility of a mayor for waste management. However, you have municipalities who are fourth and fifth class who have to collect and dispose of their waste by themselves,” Remulla said.
- Latest
- Trending
