Okay, so President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed an enrolled bill whose grand title, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Organizational Reforms Act, seemed to have promised the moon and the stars to a citizenry dying for a police organization that would keep them safe from criminals.

Mr. Marcos throwing the measure into the garbage bin was met with silence from the leadership of the PNP, but that’s to be expected as the police organization is supposed to be apolitical to have any of its active members, much more its top officials, expressing contrarian or any position, for that matter, on the very actions of a sitting President.

We’ll hear gripes, of course, from within the ranks of the PNP, from those hiding behind the cloak of anonymity, as coming out in the open is to invite censure or, worse, disciplinary action — free speech under the Constitution be damned.

Two of the bill’s provisions — increasing the pay of commissioned officers entering the service from the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) and creating liaison offices headed by generals — would have been costly for the government.

The second hardly needs an explanation as to why there would be a need for liaison offices in an organization that is supposed to have a clear-cut chain of command.

As for the first, the President was right in saying that increasing the entry pay of lieutenants from the PNPA into the PNP would create salary distortions unless corresponding pay hikes were granted up the chain of command.

Under then President Rodrigo Duterte, officers of the PNP and the other uniformed services were granted across-the-board salary hikes. Duterte made good on his campaign pledge that even rookie cops, firefighters and jailors, for example, enjoyed remunerations that put to shame what private companies were paying their employees.

With the all-inclusive pay increases within the uniformed services, it’s a wonder that many cops still choose to turn their back on their oath to serve and protect and, instead, join the dark side as hoodlums in uniform.

As can be seen from a DAILY TRIBUNE report late last year, the PNP faces a critical structural issue: A bloated officer corps with far too many desk-bound officials and a concerning lack of personnel patrolling communities.

According to government data, the PNP has been spending P26.7 billion annually on the salaries and benefits of 66,203 personnel in positions not sanctioned by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

At the time of the report, this included 35 unauthorized generals, with five lieutenant generals, six major generals, and 24 brigadier generals, along with an excess of 4,422 commissioned officers, including colonels, lieutenant colonels, majors, and captains.

Additionally, the DBM’s approved rank distribution matrix highlighted a mismatch between the authorized positions and the actual personnel distribution within the PNP.

For instance, while the DBM permits only three lieutenant generals, the PNP had eight at the time.

Similarly, the PNP had 110 brigadier generals against the authorized 86, and 856 full colonels instead of the approved 624. This top-heavy structure led to an imbalance, with an excess of senior officers and a substantial number of unfilled lower-rank positions.

The PNP had 77,190 unfilled positions, including 66,958 for patrol officers. This glaring discrepancy resulted in a lack of police visibility and undermined efforts to maintain law and order.

To be more effective, the PNP needs to reduce its number of desk-bound officials and ensure more officers are actively deployed in the field and on the streets, enhancing their capacity to fight crime and protect the public.