MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has re-organized the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) in a bid to strengthen the agency’s intelligence gathering and analysis to ensure national security and promote national interest.

In a three-page Executive Order No. 54 signed by Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin on January 19, it stated that President Marcos saw the need to reorganize NICA to adapt to the changing threats to national security.

“There is a need to reorganize the NICA to adapt to the evolving threats to national security and ensure a more vigorous intelligence collection, intensify internal and external coordination with foreign and domestic counterparts, and prepare intelligence and security assessments and estimates using data analytics to ensure national security and promote national interest,” the EO stated.

The NICA was created through EO No. 246 (s. 1987).

As the main component of its reorganization, EO 54 established the Office of the Deputy Director General (ODDG) for Cyber and Emerging Threats tasked to provide direction to overall planning, supervision and coordination of the NICA on counter-intelligence and counter-measures against cybersecurity threats, weapons of mass destruction, and other emerging threats.

The ODDG for Cyber and Emerging Threats will be headed by a Deputy Director General with the rank of Assistant Secretary to be appointed by the President and shall be composed of Directorate for Counterintelligence and Security (DCS) and Directorate for Cyberintelligence and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (DCCWMD).

A full copy of the EO is accessible on the Official Gazette where other functions of the NICA are enumerated including the funding, separability and repeal clauses.

The EO takes effect immediately. (PND)