Acceptability of Federalism among Police Officers in the Philippines

The clamor for changing the present centralized form of government to a decentralized system or Federalism has started since 2004, however, the present Administration under President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed his desire to support the changing of the present form of government to Federalism. This changing of the government cannot happen without first amending the present Constitution of the Philippines. Among the group that expresses concern on the impact of Federalism is the law enforcement. Through a descriptive-quantitative research design, this study determined the profile 49 police officers as to age, gender, marital status, educational attainment, place of birth and number of years as police officers; jurisdiction over crimes and law enforcement; citizens’ protection and responsibilities as part of community policing; and control and supervision of law enforcers. Based from the statistical result high level of acceptability were established on: independent judicial system, local governance using local solution, autonomy of operation but with proper collaboration, people receiving double security, need for technical support from the national government.

Keywords –Federalism, National Security, Police Officer