Section 1
SECTION 1. For the proper maintenance of law and order throughout the country, all the duly constituted police forces in all the municipalities and other local political subdivisions, including chartered cities, and all provincial guard organizations in the provinces, on the date of the approval of this Act, are hereby consolidated and placed under the immediate charge and direction of the Department of the Interior, and thereafter they shall be called the State Police and shall assume all the functions and activities now undertaken by the municipal police forces. The members of the State Police shall be peace officers and as such it shall be their duty to preserve order and exercise vigilance in the prevention of public offenses. They shall exercise the general power to make arrests and seizures according to law. In places where there is no fire department, the State Police force shall organize and render service as such.