Republic Act No. 157

Also known as: An Act Creating a Bureau of Investigation, Providing Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes — the long title · The Bureau of Investigation Act — the descriptive styling · The NBI charter — the functional styling, as the statute (as renamed by EO 94) under which the National Bureau of Investigation was constituted · RA 157

Government

Definition

Republic Act No. 157, long-titled “AN ACT CREATING A BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, PROVIDING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES,” was approved June 19, 1947 — the LawPhil text closing “Approved: June 19, 1947” — and took effect upon approval. (LawPhil — RA 157) It is the postwar re-founding statute of the state’s investigative arm: Section 1 created “a Bureau of Investigation under the Department of Justice,” Section 6 abolished the prewar Division of Investigation that Commonwealth Act No. 181 had created on November 13, 1936, Section 7 carried the old Division’s appropriations, supplies, and scientific equipment over, and Section 9 repealed CA 181 itself. (LawPhil — RA 157) The Act is the instrument through which the Division’s lineage passed into the present National Bureau of Investigation: on October 4, 1947, Executive Order No. 94 amended RA 157 to change the name from Bureau of Investigation to National Bureau of Investigation — the renaming the bureau’s own history records and this wiki’s National Bureau of Investigation entry carries. (NBI — About, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines))

The statute’s design still shows in the bureau’s daily work. Section 1’s function list is the charter of a scientific investigator: investigations of crimes “upon its own initiative and as public interest may require,” assistance on request, a “national clearing house of criminal and other informations” with identification, firearms, and test-bullet records, technical aid to prosecutors and courts, investigations of civil cases “in which the Government is interested,” training of city and municipal peace officers, and “an up-to-date scientific crime laboratory.” (LawPhil — RA 157) Section 2 placed a Director appointed by the President with the consent of the Commission on Appointments at the bureau’s head; Section 4 made appointments turn on “merit and fitness” by competitive examination, with general investigators to be “as far as practicable, graduates of recognized law schools or colleges or members of the bar”; and Section 5 constituted the investigation staff as peace officers with powers of arrest, search, and seizure under existing laws, subpoena and subpoena duces tecum, sworn statements “subject to constitutional restrictions,” oath administration, firearm possession without special permit, and access to public records — and to private records “upon authority of the President… in the exercise of his visitorial powers.” (LawPhil — RA 157)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	N/A — no standalone article for the statute; RA 157 is documented within Wikipedia’s National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines) article (verified this session)
Wikidata	N/A — entity search returns no item for the Act (verified this session)
DBpedia	N/A (resource verified missing this session)
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	Philippines. National Bureau of Investigation — the corporate-name heading for the agency the Act created and EO 94 renamed (verified in the LC catalog this session); no statute-specific heading
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	Republic Act No. 157 Bureau of Investigation Philippines June 19 1947 National Bureau of Investigation charter Division of Investigation Commonwealth Act 181 Executive Order 94 criminal investigation peace officer powers Director Department of Justice
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

An Act Creating a Bureau of Investigation, Providing Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes — the long title
The Bureau of Investigation Act — the descriptive styling
The NBI charter — the functional styling, as the statute (as renamed by EO 94) under which the National Bureau of Investigation was constituted
RA 157

Examples and Analogies

A war-shattered service rebuilt by statute: the Division of Investigation of 1936 — “conceived through the vision of President Manuel L. Quezon and then Secretary of Justice Jose A. Yulo” — had been affiliated with other agencies in the occupation years and lost agents to the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps; RA 157 re-founded it as a statutory bureau, transferring the old Division’s personnel “to and form the nucleus of the new Bureau.” (NBI — About, LawPhil — RA 157)
A clearing house, not just a detective bureau: Section 1(c) makes the bureau the “national clearing house of criminal and other informations” — records of persons without convictions, identifying marks, firearms ownership, and test bullets — the function from which the modern NBI clearance system descends. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Peace-officer powers on a civilian leash: Section 5 arms investigators with arrest, subpoena, and oath powers but inside a civilian department, “subject to constitutional restrictions” and to assignments by the Secretary of Justice under Section 1(h) — investigation separated from prosecution by design. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Verified statutory data:
Long title and approval: “AN ACT CREATING A BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, PROVIDING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES”; approved June 19, 1947; effective upon approval (Sec. 10) (LawPhil — RA 157)
Creation (Sec. 1): Bureau of Investigation under the Department of Justice, with eight enumerated functions (a)–(h), from own-initiative investigation to the scientific crime laboratory (LawPhil — RA 157)
Director (Sec. 2): appointed by the President with the consent of the Commission on Appointments; annual compensation of ₱7,200 (LawPhil — RA 157)
Personnel (Secs. 3–4): Division personnel form the nucleus; merit-and-fitness appointments by competitive examination; investigators preferably law graduates, bar members, CPAs, or ten-year law-enforcement veterans (LawPhil — RA 157)
Powers (Sec. 5): peace-officer status; arrests, searches, and seizures per existing laws; subpoenas at Government expense; sworn statements under constitutional limits; oaths; firearms without special permit; access to public records, and to private records under the President’s visitorial authority (LawPhil — RA 157)
Succession and funds (Secs. 6–9, 8): Division of Investigation abolished; its appropriations, supplies, and scientific equipment transferred; CA No. 181 repealed; ₱500,000 appropriated (LawPhil — RA 157)
Renaming: Executive Order No. 94, October 4, 1947, amended RA 157 to change the name from Bureau of Investigation to National Bureau of Investigation (NBI — About, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines))

Usage Scenarios

1. Establishing the Bureau’s Statutory Lineage

The Act is the middle link in the chain this wiki’s National Bureau of Investigation entry carries — CA 181 (November 13, 1936) creating the Division of Investigation; RA 157 (June 19, 1947) reorganizing it as the Bureau of Investigation; EO 94 (October 4, 1947) adding the “National” — the lineage against which every claimed founding date of the NBI is checked. (NBI — About, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines))

2. Investigation on Own Initiative and on Referral

Section 1(a) authorizes investigation of crimes “upon its own initiative and as public interest may require,” alongside assistance “whenever properly requested” under Section 1(b) and civil-service investigations “in which the Government is interested” under Section 1(e) — the original vs. delegated jurisdiction pairing that still frames debates over the bureau’s tasking. (LawPhil — RA 157)

3. Records, Identification, and the Modern Clearance

The clearing-house function of Section 1(c) — criminal information and identification records held for all prosecuting and law-enforcement entities — is the statutory ancestor of the NBI clearance, the bureau’s most quotidian public touchpoint documented in this wiki’s National Bureau of Investigation entry. (LawPhil — RA 157)

4. Training and Forensic Services

Sections 1(f) and 1(g) direct the training of city and municipal peace officers and the maintenance of “an up-to-date scientific crime laboratory” with research — the mandate behind the bureau’s forensic services. (LawPhil — RA 157)

5. Studying Postwar Reconstruction of the Justice Apparatus

Read beside CA 181, the Act shows how the young Republic rebuilt prewar institutions by statute — abolishing, re-creating, carrying over personnel and equipment, and repealing the Commonwealth charter in a single text. (LawPhil — RA 157, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines))

Strategies

Re-found by statute, preserve by nucleus: rather than recruit from nothing, Section 3 transferred the Division’s personnel to “form the nucleus of the new Bureau” — continuity of craft inside a new legal shell. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Keep the investigator inside the Justice Department: creation “under the Department of Justice” and the Sec. 1(h) catch-all (“such other related functions as the Secretary of Justice may assign”) bound investigation to prosecution from the start. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Mandate the scientific method: the laboratory and research functions of Section 1(g), and the transfer of the Division’s “scientific equipment” under Section 7, made scientific detection a statutory duty rather than an administrative option. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Recruit by examination and profession: Section 4’s merit system — competitive mental and physical examination, with preference for lawyers, bar members, and CPAs — aimed the bureau at a professional bench from its first hiring. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Fix the name by amendment, not new statute: the October 1947 renaming by executive order kept the 1947 charter continuously in force through the name change. (Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines), NBI — About)

Security and Safety Measures

Investigate, not prosecute: as a civilian bureau under the Department of Justice, the agency investigates while prosecutors prosecute and courts adjudicate — the division of labor the Act structures and this wiki’s National Bureau of Investigation entry elaborates. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Constitutional limits written into the text: sworn statements are taken “subject to constitutional restrictions,” and arrests, searches, and seizures run only “in accordance with existing laws and rules” — the 1947 statute’s own bill-of-rights floor. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Bounded powers: subpoenas run “at Government expense”; firearm possession is tied to the protection of investigators, witnesses, and persons in custody; private records open only under the President’s visitorial authority. (LawPhil — RA 157)
Evidentiary discipline as the judicial check: the bureau’s investigative products answer to the courts — the Supreme Court’s 2010 acquittal in Lejano v. People, weighing an NBI informant’s conflicting affidavits and the lost DNA specimen, remains the canonical rebuke. (LawPhil — Lejano v. People)
For researchers: the approval date is June 19, 1947 — the date on the LawPhil text and in the bureau’s own history; June 16 sometimes circulates and should not be used. The “National” in the bureau’s name came from EO 94 (October 4, 1947), not from RA 157 itself, which created only the “Bureau of Investigation.” (LawPhil — RA 157, NBI — About, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines))

Historical Context

The Act answers a wartime dispersal. Commonwealth Act No. 181 created the Division of Investigation on November 13, 1936, under the Department of Justice — “conceived through the vision of President Manuel L. Quezon and then Secretary of Justice Jose A. Yulo,” staffed by an NYPD veteran and the first Filipino FBI member, Thomas Dugan and Flaviano C. Guerrero, and built on a founding cadre of 45 agents chosen from over 300 applicants. In the occupation the Division was affiliated with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Philippine Constabulary under the name Bureau of Investigation, and after liberation many of its agents were recruited into the US Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps. (NBI — About)

Congress rebuilt the service by statute: House Bill No. 1162 became Republic Act No. 157, approved June 19, 1947, reorganizing the agency as the Bureau of Investigation, absorbing the Division’s personnel and scientific equipment, repealing CA 181, and appropriating ₱500,000 for its operation. (LawPhil — RA 157, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines)) The name lasted less than four months: Executive Order No. 94 of October 4, 1947 amended RA 157 to rename the bureau the National Bureau of Investigation — the modern institution whose investigations, clearances, forensic services, and controversies are treated in this wiki’s National Bureau of Investigation entry rather than duplicated here. (NBI — About, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines))

Challenges and Controversies

Which Date, and Which Instrument

The statute’s dates are persistently misstated: the approval is June 19, 1947 (not June 16), and the “National Bureau of Investigation” name is the product of EO 94’s October 4, 1947 amendment — RA 157 itself created only the Bureau of Investigation. The LawPhil approval line and the bureau’s own posted history are the controls for both facts. (LawPhil — RA 157, NBI — About, Wikipedia — National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines))

Own-Initiative Power and Its Breadth

Section 1(a) lets the bureau investigate “upon its own initiative and as public interest may require” — language broad enough to ground both independence and tasking by the Justice Department under Section 1(h). Where the initiative power ends and referral begins has structured the bureau’s relations with the police and prosecutors ever since. (LawPhil — RA 157)

Investigative Evidence and the Courts

The statute’s peace-officer and oath powers produce evidence that courts must still test: Lejano v. People (2010) acquitted Hubert Webb and co-accused after weighing the conflicting affidavits of an NBI informant and the bureau’s inability to produce the DNA specimen — the standing reminder that the 1947 charter’s powers end at the Constitution and the rules of evidence. (LawPhil — Lejano v. People)

A 1947 Charter in Modern Practice

The Act’s figures — a Director’s salary of ₱7,200, an appropriation of ₱500,000 — measure the distance between the founding bureau and the present agency; the statute’s survival through renaming, reorganizations, and the modern clearance economy is itself the argument of those who ask whether the NBI’s charter deserves a full modern rewrite rather than another amendment. (LawPhil — RA 157, NBI — About)