National Intelligence Coordinating Agency

The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA; Filipino: Pambansang Ahensiya na Tagapag-Ugnay sa Pamalayan) is the primary intelligence gathering and analysis arm of the government of the Philippines in charge of carrying out overt, covert, and clandestine intelligence activities. The NICA directs, coordinates, and integrates all intelligence activities, both foreign and domestic, concerning national security, serving as the leading intelligence collector of the national government, focusing on the country's strategic intelligence requirements. It is mandated to prepare intelligence estimate on local and foreign situation for the formulation of national security policies by the President and the National Security Council.

The agency also serves as the focal point for the government's counterintelligence activities and operation; acts as Secretariat to the Anti-Terrorism Council; and serves as head of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict's Situation Awareness and Knowledge Management Cluster.

The NICA is led by a Director-General, who reports directly to the president of the Philippines, and is assisted by two Deputy Director-Generals. Its headquarters is located in Quezon City, with regional offices located all over the country and foreign stations in countries of interest to the Philippine government.

The National Intelligence Committee, chaired by the Director-General, serves as the advisory body of NICA.

Founded in 1949, the NICA was created by President Elpidio Quirino under the authority of Executive Order No. 235. In 1954, the Government Survey and Reorganization Commission ordered the expansion of the powers of NICA. The agency was reorganized in 1958 under Executive Order No. 291 by President Carlos P. Garcia.

The NICA was abolished on November 16, 1972, by President Ferdinand Marcos under Presidential Decree No. 51, and was replaced by the National Intelligence and Security Authority (NISA), which was designated as the principal intelligence agency, and the Civil Intelligence and Security Agency (CISA), which was tasked with counterintelligence and supervision of all civil security units in Philippine government offices. The NISA was then headed by Gen. Fabian Ver and was alleged to be responsible for various human rights abuses, primarily during the martial law period. The regime of President Marcos, through Gen. Ver, was believed by human rights groups to have used NISA to spy on, abduct and eliminate persons opposing the autocracy of President Marcos in the 1970s and the 1980s, as the regime's secret police.

In 1978, the NISA was designated as the focal point for all intelligence activities involving national security and supervisor of other intelligence agencies under the Office of the President.

In 1987, shortly after the People Power Revolution which had led to a peaceful removal of President Marcos from office, his successor President Corazon Aquino issued Executive Order No. 246 which abolished NISA and CISA and reestablished NICA. The NICA then refocused its priorities in tackling the communist insurgency in the Philippines.