Manila, June 2 -- Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero on Monday welcomed the appointment of Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III as the new chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), calling it a historic fulfillment of a decades-old law mandating civilian leadership in the police force.

In a press briefing on Monday, Escudero said the decision of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to appoint Torre, a graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), as PNP chief marked the full realization of Republic Act No. 6975, the 1990 law that restructured the country's police force from military to civilian in character.

RA 6975, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990, provided for the creation of the PNP as a...