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Philippines THE STRUCTURE OF THE ARMED FORCES
Commonwealth Act 1, the National Defense Act of 1935,
mandated the formation of the Army of the Philippines, comprising
all eventual land, sea, air, and national police forces. The
existing Philippine Constabulary was abolished and used as the
nucleus of the new army. The Philippine Constabulary's air force
became the army's air arm and a small maritime element, the
Offshore Patrol, was added in 1939. Coincident with a
reorganization of the government following independence, the
military forces were redesignated the Armed Forces of the
Philippines in 1947. That organization was essentially an army
command in which air force, maritime, and police internal
security units were constituted as subordinate commands. A more
fundamental reorganization of the military establishment in 1950,
which was brought about in part by the growing Huk insurgency
(see The Huk Rebellion
, ch. 1), established four separate
services--army, navy, air force, and national police--under a
joint headquarters. The national police was renamed the
Philippine Constabulary in 1959. The army continued to dominate
the command structure, however, until 1960 when the headquarters
was converted to a truly joint command.
The Philippines deployed combat forces abroad on three
occasions. Expeditionary forces served in the Republic of Korea
(South Korea) under the United Nations Command between 1950 and
1955. Also under United Nations auspices, air force officers and
enlisted personnel were sent to the Republic of the Congo (now
Zaire) in 1963. From 1966 until the early 1970s, the 2,000-strong
Philippine Civic Action Group, composed mainly of engineer,
security, medical, and rural community development teams, was
active in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).
The 1987 constitution mandated further changes in the
structure of the armed forces. The existing militia, the Civilian
Home Defense Force, was ordered disbanded and was replaced
beginning in 1988 with a new auxiliary force under the direct
control of military regulars. More significantly, the 1987
constitution calls for the government "to establish and maintain
one police force, which shall be national in scope and civilian
in character." Pursuant to that mandate, Aquino signed a law
directing that the Philippine Constabulary, one of the four
military services, be combined with the civilian Integrated
National Police to form the Philippine National Police. The
process of integrating the two organizations under a newly
created Department of Interior and Local Government began on
January 1, 1991.
Data as of June 1991
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