NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY CHAPTER 4: NATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES “There are many amongst us who advance the assessment that the problems that bedevil our country today which need to be addressed with urgency, are corruption, both in the high and low echelons of government, criminality in the streets, and the rampant sale of illegal drugs.... For I see these ills as mere symptoms of a virulent social disease that creeps and cuts into the moral fiber of Philippine society. I sense a problem deeper and more serious than any of those mentioned or all of them put together. Erosion of faith and trust in government — that is the real problem that confronts us.” PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. DUTERTE Inaugural Speech 30 June 2016 The national security sector needs to give focused attention to several major internal and external issues and challenges confronting the Philippine society. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT LAW AND ORDER AND ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE The Philippines has grappled for years with a serious peace and order problem. The national crime rate, considered as one of the highest in Southeast and East Asia, has posed a significant deterrent to investments as well as constrained the country’s overall development potential. While the number of reported crimes has been rising, the ability of the police to solve crime has decreased. The twin scourge of corruption and patronage politics plaguing law enforcement institutions and Government sector as a whole has made it extremely hard, if not impossible, to bring the crime rate down. Clearly, ensuring public security and enforcing the rule of law is one of the key governance challenges confronting the Philippine Government. This has amplified the need to undertake crucial reforms aimed at cleansing and strengthening the five pillars of the criminal justice system, namely: law enforcement, the courts, prosecution, correctional institutions, and the community. 9|Page