The Highway Patrol Group is a

police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...

unit under the

Philippine National Police The Philippine National Police ( fil, Pambansang Pulisya ng Pilipinas, acronymed as PNP) is the armed national police force in the Philippines. Its national headquarters is located at Camp Crame in Bagong Lipunan ng Crame, Quezon City. Currentl ...

(PNP).

History

The Highway Patrol Group was established as Traffic Control Group (Trafcon) in 1955 as a response to a high-profile vehicular accident along a highway in

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga ( pam, Lalawigan ning Pampanga; tl, Lalawigan ng Pampanga ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac ...

, now known as the

MacArthur Highway The MacArthur Highway, officially the Manila North Road (MNR or MaNor), is a , two-to-six lane, national primary highway and tertiary highway in Luzon, Philippines, connecting Caloocan in Metro Manila to Aparri in Cagayan. It is the second ...

. The accident which occurred on November 4, 1954 which killed

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

members Gregorio Tan of Samar and Lorenzo Ziga of Albay. President

Ramon Magsaysay Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. (August 31, 1907 – March 17, 1957) was a Filipino statesman who served as the seventh president of the Philippines, from December 30, 1953, until his death in an aircraft disaster on March 17, 1957. An automo ...

urged the Congress to establish a "specialized and dedicated" police unit to maintain

road traffic safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road ...

across the Philippines. The Trafcon was a unit under the

Philippine Constabulary The Philippine Constabulary (PC; tl, Hukbóng Pamayapà ng Pilipinas, ''HPP''; es, Policía de Filipinas, ''PF'') was a gendarmerie-type police force of the Philippines from 1901 to 1991, and the predecessor to the Philippine National Po ...

, which in turn was part of the

Armed Forces of the Philippines The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ( fil, Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The ...

. The Trafcon later became known as the Constabulary Highway Patrol Group. The HPG was absorbed in 1991 when the

was formed through the merger of the Constabulary and the

Integrated National Police The Integrated National Police (INP) (Filipino: ''Pinagsamang Pulisyáng Pambansà'', ''PPP''; Spanish:''Policía Nacional Conjunto'', ''PNC'') was the municipal police force for the cities and large towns of the Republic of the Philippines. One ...

. The HPG became the Traffic Management Group. However the traffic law enforcement powers of the patrol group was given to the

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA; fil, Pangasiwaan sa Pagpapaunlad ng Kalakhang Maynila) is a government agency of the Philippines responsible for constituting the regional government of Metro Manila, comprising the capital ...

(MMDA) and

local government units Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

(LGUs) some years later. The Highway Patrol Group returned to

EDSA Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, commonly referred to by its acronym EDSA, is a limited-access circumferential highway around Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. It passes through 6 of Metro Manila's 17 local government units or citie ...

in 2015 and was tasked to enforce traffic laws due to worsening traffic conditions in the

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the seat of government and one of three defined metropolitan areas in ...

thoroughfare at the time. This is to augment MMDA traffic constables and LGU enforcers. The HPG last patrolled EDSA in 1994.

Organization

As the Traffic Control Group (Trafcon), the unit was under the

. It later became part of the

. The HPG has Regional Highway Patrol Units under it.

Role

The Highway Patrol Group is a

highway patrol A highway patrol, or state patrol is either a police unit created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways, or a detail within an existing local or regional police agency that is prima ...

with a national scope. It is tasked to enforce traffic safety roles and provides general supervision to local police forces with regard to the enforcement of traffic laws. It also provides assistance to the Land Transportation Office, formerly the Bureau of Land Transportation. The HPG furthermore also enforces driver's licenses and motor vehicle registration and regulations with regards to public carriers.

Directors

References

External links

*{{Official website, hpg.pnp.gov.ph 1955 establishments in the Philippines Philippine National Police