Incoming PNP chief an ally of the poor

CHIEF Supt. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, incoming Philippine National Police chief, has become aware of the reason for the rubout of drug suspects by the police.

There is no way that policemen who killed suspected drug dealers and pushers came to know only recently of their illegal activities.

They had probably been protecting these scoundrels for a long time.

Executing them was the only way for these rogue cops to escape liability.

I like Dela Rosa’s idea of ridding the force of policemen involved in the distribution of illegal drugs.

That will solve the drug problem in the country because drug dealers and pushers cannot operate without police protection.

When rogue policemen think that their criminal ways are about to be uncovered, they kill their wards.

It seems that the citizenry has found an ally in Dela Rosa who minces no words in denouncing abuses within the PNP.

If he walks the talk, Dela Rosa will become a hero to the ordinary citizens who have suffered in silence from abusive and corrupt policemen.

The most oppressed people are the poor who have no means of fighting back.

Although some of them ask the media—particularly public service programs like “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo”—for redress, their complaints against abusive cops take a very long time to resolve.

A good example is the complaint against a drunken cop who shot dead in 2000 a teenager inside a videoke bar in Pasig City.

“Isumbong” filed criminal and administrative cases against the policeman involved.

He was finally dismissed last year—or after a lapse of 15 years —because we at “Isumbong” never stopped following up the administrative case.

The criminal case is still pending in the Pasig Regional Trial Court but it has become moot as the cop died of cancer a few months ago. A fast trial—administrative or criminal—of cops accused of abusing their authority will bring back the citizenry’s confidence in the police.

The National Police Commission (Napolcom) should be abolished because it has become useless when it comes to hearing cases against policemen.

The agency dismisses policemen for abusive behavior and then rein-

state them when nobody is looking. Money is believed to play a hand in their reinstatement.

Incoming Communications Secretary Martin Andanar plans to modernize government-owned PTV 4 in order to make it at par with private networks ABS-CBN, GMA 7 and ABC TV 5.

PTV 4 and Radyo ng Bayan, another government-run station, will become the sources of official pronouncements from the incoming Duterte administration which is loath to dealing with independent media.

Andanar, former TV 5 news anchor, will seek help from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. to make PTV 4 a self-sustaining and independent network.

It’s going to be a tall order for Andanar but if he’s serious about improving the laggard government network, he should fire all its staff and replace them with new ones.

He might want to increase the salaries of the new employees so he could “raid” other networks for their talents.

Even if it’s owned by the government, Andanar might want to make PTV 4 free of government interference much like the British Broadcasting Corp.

PTV 4 didn’t improve because its top officials, who were presidential appointees, made it a milking cow.