The three police laws the NAPOLCOM exam keeps asking about: RA 6975, RA 8551 and RA 11200, section by section.

Signed 13 December 1990, in force 1 January 1991. RA 6975 reorganised the Department of Local Government into the Department of the Interior and Local Government and created, under it, the Philippine National Police, absorbing the Philippine Constabulary and the Integrated National Police. It reconstituted the National Police Commission as an agency attached to the DILG with administrative control and operational supervision over the PNP, and created the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Philippine Public Safety College.

The sections the exam draws on: the declaration of policy and the constitutional mandate for one civilian national police force; the organisation of the PNP from national headquarters to the station; Section 28 on rank classification, later amended by RA 11200; Section 30 on the qualifications for appointment, later amended by RA 8551; and the enumeration of administrative and operational support units.

Signed 25 February 1998. RA 8551 was the response to the PNP's first years: it declared the policy of a police force that is community and service oriented and civilian in character, strengthened NAPOLCOM, and rewrote the rules on who may be appointed, how officers are promoted, and how they are disciplined.

Section 14 amended Section 30 of RA 6975 with the qualifications for appointment still in force: Filipino citizenship, good moral conduct, a formal baccalaureate degree from a recognised institution, the appropriate eligibility, age of not less than 21 nor more than 30, height of at least 1.62 metres for men and 1.57 for women, weight within 5 kilograms of the standard, physical and mental health, and no drug dependence. Section 19 requires a field training programme in patrol, traffic and investigation as a condition of a permanent appointment. Title V, Sections 39 to 51, created the Internal Affairs Service. Section 33 amended the promotion rules so that no uniformed member is promoted without passing the corresponding promotional examination, completing the required training, passing the psychiatric and drug tests, and being clear of pending cases.

RA 9708, in 2009, extended by five years the period for serving members to comply with the baccalaureate requirement and adjusted the promotion system. It appears on the exam as a distractor more often than as an answer, which is why its subject is worth knowing.

RA 11200, signed 8 February 2019, amended Section 28 of RA 6975 to rename every PNP rank. Police Officer I became Patrolman or Patrolwoman; the Senior Police Officer series became the Master Sergeant series; Inspector, Senior Inspector and Chief Inspector became Lieutenant, Captain and Major; Superintendent and Senior Superintendent became Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel; and the Director series became the Generals, with Director General becoming Police General. It changed names only; the number of ranks and the promotion rules stayed as they were.

Almost every item about these laws is one of three questions. Which law did X: created the PNP, set the degree requirement, created the IAS, renamed the ranks. What year, or what date, was a law signed or did it take effect. And what did a law provide in a named section: the age range, the height standard, the promotion requirements. The options are always other real laws, so the study is not memorising four names but attaching each fact to exactly one of them.