National Security Council (Philippines)

National Security Council

NSC Seal
Abbreviation	NSC
Formation	1950
Location	Manila, Philippines
Chairman	Rodrigo Duterte
National Security Adviser	Hermogenes Esperon
Website	www.nsc.gov.ph

National Security Council (NSC) is the Philippine President's principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials.

Commonwealth Act No. 1 is the original policy basis of the national security program of the Republic of the Philippines.

The 1987 Constitution mandates civilian control of the military and establishes the president as commander in chief of the armed forces. The President also heads the National Security Council, ostensibly the policy-making and advisory body for matters connected with national defense. Former President Corazon Aquino reestablished the council in 1986 through an executive order that provided for a National Security Council director to advise the president on national security matters and for a National Security Council Secretariat. The council itself is composed of the president and at least nine others: the Vice President; the AFP chief of staff; National Security Council director; the Executive Secretary; and the Secretaries of Foreign Affairs, National Defense, Interior and Local Government, Justice, and Labor and Employment (called ministers before 1987). By the end of 1990, however, the National Security Council had only convened twice.