Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla vowed to honor the merit system in the promotion of police officers as part of the structural reforms he wants to strictly implement in the police organization.

The strict observance of the merit system, according to him, will eventually put an end to the culture of the padrino system at the expense of more qualified police officers that should be promoted.

“The promotion now is based on palakasan (padrino system), as long as you don’t have a case and even if you have a case you are still promoted. So we want to set a merit and demerit system to ensure that those qualified are promoted,” said Remulla in an interview over dzRH.

“And that goes also with the structural reforms that we want to do kung, so that everything is based on merit,” he added.

Such strict implementation of merit and demerit system, according to Remulla, will eventually depoliticize the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Aside from the issue of promotion, Remulla also emphasized the need for a change of mindset among police officers in terms of enforcing the law.

He was referring to the issue of human rights violations and extra-judicial killings involving police officers, the recent was the involvement of a middle-ranking police official who confessed his role in the killing of a retired police general.

“The problem is that in the previous administration, there was a cultural shift in the PNP that extra-judicial means of dispensing justice became normal and it became acceptable,” said Remulla.

“That culture must end. There is a need for a change of mindset so that we would be able to really prosecute those involved in the extra-judicial killings and weed out those who have been participating in it,” he added.

President Marcos named Remulla as the DILG Secretary to replace Benhur Abalos who was deemed resigned when he filed his certificate of candidacy for senator for the 2025 midterm elections.