The Philippine National Police (PNP) welcomes the extension of its current chief, Rommel Francisco Marbil, which will take effect on his retirement day, Friday, 7 February.

Malacañang early Thursday announced that President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. granted a four-month extension to his term as stipulated in a memorandum dated 4 February, signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.

This means Marbil will still be carrying out his “law enforcement modernization and crime prevention initiatives” until June.

In a text message to reporters, Marbil said his four-month extension in service will allow the PNP to fine-tune its preparations for the upcoming 2025 midterm polls.

“Thank you to our President for trusting and having confidence in the PNP under my leadership. The 4-month extension will help us refine and improve the preparations we made for the election,” Marbil said.

Marcos approved the extension of the current PNP chief’s government service “beyond the compulsory retirement age of 56.”

The memorandum was addressed to Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla for his immediate action.

Marbil, a member of the Philippine Military Academy’s Sambisig Class of 1991, was appointed on 1 April 2024 and is set to retire on 7 February 2025 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56.

Before being the PNP chief, Marbil was designated as the head of the Directorate for Comptrollership — in charge of the financial management of the police organization — from 2 May 2023 to 1 April 2024.

He was also designated as the regional director of Eastern Visayas police from 8 August 2022 to 2 May 2023 and as the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) director from 19 November 2021 to 8 August 2022.

Marbil was designated as chief of staff of the Civil Security Group from 2019 to 2020. He once served as the provincial director of Agusan del Norte from 2014 until 2015.

In his early years in the police service, Marbil worked as the chief of the Force Intelligence Division of the Special Action Force from 2008 to 2009. He was the chief of police of Bacoor in Cavite from 2004 to 2006.

From 2006 to 2007, he became the commander of the Presidential Protection Security Force of the United Nations Contingent in Liberia.