Extortion a minor offense for cops?

There’s a nagging detail about President Duterte’s dressing down of rogue Manila cops at Malacañang this week. National Police director general Ronald dela Rosa said most are charged with “minor” infractions. The scalawags enumerated these to be “mere” tardiness, moonlighting, and extortion. One of them sniffed that he shouldn’t be faulted for late reporting for duty since he’s assigned to the night shift.

That’s precisely why police discipline is in shambles. They deem serious offenses as light. The country really is in trouble.

Tardiness, especially if habitual, cannot be petty. Lateness for work shows disinterest and dereliction. A tardy cop would be unable to secure his precinct, much more the community, against lawbreakers. Repeated tardiness is a firing offense in private offices. More so in the police force.

Cops moonlighting as private bodyguards or nightclub bouncers use their authority for personal ends. They demean the uniform even if not wearing it. Lawyer Romy Macalintal says it is unbecoming and amounts to dishonesty, subject to dismissal under the Code of Conduct for Public Officials.

Extortion is prevalent in the ranks. Filipinos so revile it that they’ve coined terms like “kotong- cop” for the bribee (“tong” means bribe) and “huli- dap” for the modus operandi of apprehending (“huli”) a person for the purpose of holdup.

Extortion in the Revised Penal Code is categorized with robbery, bribery, and theft. It is the taking of property, say money, by force or intimidation. Hoodlums in uniform take a few hundred pesos to let the fish dealer through the checkpoint. Or falsely accuse an innocent of a heinous crime for higher amounts. Or roughly handcuff an offender to make him pay up for release.

Intimidation and force are easy. The mere uniform and badge can arouse fear, much more the whipping out of a nightstick or firearm. Filipinos know the routine too well. Rare is he who hasn’t been victimized.

Extortion is punishable with up to 20 years’ imprisonment under the Penal Code. Also dismissal under the AntiGraft and Corrupt Practices Act.

What to do if victimized? The PNP brass exhort citizens to file charges. Victims are reluctant, knowing that most “kotong- cops” are into the racket on orders of superiors. They have “tong” collection quotas to share with the chief, who in turn covers up for them. That’s how the scalawags who kidnapped for ransom then murdered a Korean retiree got away with previous extortions, then graduated to the big time.

The PNP would do well to designate special desks in all precincts where victims can report “kotong- cops.” It can build up citizens’ trust if the crooks are arrested on the spot and swiftly clapped in jail. If not, it would help to secretly videotape the extortionist on smartphone, then post it online. Public shaming is an effective punishment; swift justice is a crime deterrent.

* * * There’s another bothersome detail about the presidential scolding. General Dela Rosa said most of the scalawags had been indicted as far back as 2014 and 2015. But the charges likely are weak; otherwise their cases shouldn’t have dragged this long; they would’ve been punished by now. Exactly 487 uniformed rogues were called to the Palace; only 228 showed up. A few had asked to be excused to attend hearings, Dela Rosa said; the rest presumably were defiant of the Commander-inChief no less, and so would further be charged.

This is revealing. Either the PNP is reluctant or plain inept in disciplining its ranks. Whichever, if it can’t build up solid raps against men under its control, then more so with criminals on the loose. Two-thirds of the 7,000-plus killings in the war on drugs supposedly were by vigilantes or rival narco-gangs. Is the PNP hesitant or just incapable of solving the murders? Either way, without a creditable solution rate, it will always be hounded by suspicion of sanctioning extrajudicial killings.

Before Duterte began his bloody war on drugs last July, the volume of street assassinations already was swelling, from 2,100 in 2010 to 4,200 in 2015. The PNP has not solved most of those; thus the continuing swell.

Duterte’s recourse is to reassign the scalawags to Basilan. There in two years he expects them to be slain by Abu Sayyaf Islamist terrorists. That is the ex-state prosecutor Duterte’s way of punishing them. Throwing scalawags to the Muslim Autonomous Region has been a long-standing if inappropriate way of disciplining. Rep. Romeo Acop (Antipolo City), a retired police general, says that commanders resort to it in the absence of solid evidence against crooked subordinates. Dela Rosa admits to have earlier sent to Sulu-Tawi-Tawi three dozen “ninja-cops” – known but uncharged recyclers of confiscated narcotics.

In some cases such hardship posting reforms the scalawags; more often they go AWOL and turn into full-time crooks. That worsens criminality – and incites secession – in Moro-land. Duterte knows the consequences. He says ex-cops and ex-soldiers, because of their special training, become the most vicious hoods. Yet he is sending them to Basilan, in the hope that death would overtake their evil ways.

Duterte’s only other option is for the scalawags to resign. Yet in that regard too the PNP is weak. It has been losing firearms and ammo due to failure to retrieve the official issues from resignees and deserters.

What’s needed is to replicate past top-to-bottom revamps, by President Fidel Ramos in 1992 and Sen. Panfilo Lacson in 1999. The former had headed the Philippine Constabulary, the latter the PNP. Upon becoming Chief Executive, Ramos retired 63 weak generals and dismissed more than 5,000 scalawags; a good number were sentenced to prison. Lacson instituted a personnel evaluation system for commanders; perennial flunkers were given innocuous desk jobs, while good performers and strict disciplinarians were promoted; sluggards had no choice but to leave. Duterte is thinking of forming a special PNP battalion to monitor rogues in the ranks.

* * * Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

Gotcha archives on Facebook: https:// www. facebook. com/ pages/ JariusBondoc/ 1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/ columns/134276