Lowering height demands for PNP now up to Duterte

The bill that aims to lower the height requirements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other uniformed agencies is now up for signature by President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Senate and the House of Representatives on Monday, March 15, separately ratified the bicameral report on Senate Bill No. 1563 and House Bill No. 8261, which both lowered the height requirement for uniformed agencies by two inches.

Both proposed the new height requirement of 1.57 meters or 5 feet 2 inches for male applicants, and 1.52 meters or 5 feet for female applicants to uniformed agencies.

The bill seeks to amend Republic Act No. 6975, which set the minimum height requirement for civilian safety and security personnel.

Aside from the PNP, the height requirements were reduced for the following agencies:

Bureau of Fire Protection
Bureau of Jail Management and Penology
Bureau of Corrections

Among them, the PNP employs and rejects most applicants. As of 2021, around 200,000 personnel serve the national police force.

Lawmakers reasoned that height requirements must not bar Filipinos from serving in the uniformed agencies.

With the bill passed by Congress, it’s now up to President Duterte to sign it into law. – Rappler.com

Add a comment

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Rambo Talabong

Rambo Talabong covers the House of Representatives and local governments for Rappler. Prior to this, he covered security and crime. He was named Jaime V. Ongpin Fellow in 2019 for his reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. In 2021, he was selected as a journalism fellow by the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.