Can DILG keep a retiring Calabarzon top cop for 1 more year?

Calabarzon top cop Police Brigadier General Hansel Marantan is supposed to bow out of the Philippine National Police (PNP) this year once he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56.

But apparently, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla wants to give him another year at the service.

In a document seen by Rappler, Remulla sent a letter to the National Police Commission (Napolcom) commissioners, asking for Marantan’s extension.

“This is to request the one-year extension of the active service of Police Brigadier General Hansel M. Marantan, effective upon reaching his compulsory retirement age,” Remulla’s letter read.

“This request is being made in the interest of the service to ensure continuity in the execution of critical and ongoing high-impact operations currently being spearheaded by General Marantan,” it added.

Rappler independently verified the said letter.

Marantan, the current Calabarzon regional police chief, is set to retire on July 10.

“[The] documents have been submitted to the [executive secretary’s] office for approval,” Remulla told Rappler in a message.

But is it legal to extend Marantan’s PNP service?

What the law says

Republic Act No. 6975, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990, provides the framework for the PNP as an organization.

Under the law’s section 39, cops — both officers and non-officers — are automatically retired once they reach 56. However, the same law makes service extension possible for select officers.

“Provided, that, in case of any officer with the rank of [police brigadier general, police major general, and police lieutenant general, the Commission (Napolcom) may allow his retention in the service for an unextendible period of one (1) year,” says the law.

“All brigadier generals are eligible,” Remulla explained. Marantan is a one-star general.

It’s now up to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — to Malacañang — if they will grant Remulla’s request.

The extension of a general’s term is, however, not usually done in the PNP, except for PNP chiefs. Marcos extended the terms of his two former PNP chiefs: Benjamin Acorda Jr. and Rommel Marbil.

“I’ll have to check,” the DILG chief said when asked if service extension of a one-star general has been done before.

Who is Marantan?

Marantan has links to Davao City. He was the city’s top cop during the arrest of doomsday preacher and alleged trafficker Apollo Quiboloy.

Before his stint in Calabarzon, he headed the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office in Metro Manila.

But years before all these, he was involved in a major controversy in Calabarzon.

Then a police lieutenant colonel, Marantan was the head of the checkpoint where 13 people, including suspected jueteng operator Victor Siman, were killed in an alleged shootout in Quezon province in 2013. 

The National Bureau of Investigation said the supposed encounter in Atimonan town — called “Coplan Armado” — was based on Marantan’s intelligence that Siman and his men were alleged members of private armed groups allegedly hired by jueteng operators and drug lords. 

In June 2025, Marantan and 11 other police officers were cleared by a Manila court over the killings. 

Last year, a drama film about Marantan’s life story, “Sa Likod ng Tsapa” (Behind the Badge), aired in cinemas. – Rappler.com