Peace and order

Near Guijo St., Makati. Kuya said, “Wag po!,” then a loud BANG!! That police shining a light on the person is actually one of the shooters. And then there’s the mobile, body’s gone. F*CK!!! P*tang inang mga pulis.

That was one story that caught my attention early Wednesday on my Facebook newsfeed. It is about how a condo dweller in Makati witnessed something scary happening so close to his home. On the other hand, one can say it is just another day of life in our country.

It is difficult to make a quick conclusion what that was about. The police may be responding to a citizen’s plea for help. One comment in the thread claims the victim was someone who held up a spa and an eatery and was identified through CCTV. Another commented that “a police operation, no matter how legitimate, is put into question once a cop shoots a person who is surrendering or begging for his life.”

Indeed, it is difficult to say how one feels. One side of you may feel relief because one more scum is taken off the face of the earth. Another side feels anger that an innocent life may have been taken. Both sides agree that the incident sows fear simply because no one knows who the next victim will be.

There is also the possibility of fake news. Assuming it is fake, it seems true because you have seen something like this captured by CCTV and reported countless of times in the evening newscast. Over all, people feel insecure… unsafe.

The PNP insists there is a drop in the general crime rate. The SWS also reported a week ago that “there were fewer crime victims in the past six months, but fear of being victimized has increased.”

“The number of those who feared that robbers may break into their homes increased by just one percent to 63 percent from September’s 62 percent, although this yielded an annual average of 60.3 percent, six points higher than the 2015 annual average of 54.3 percent.

“Similarly, those who felt that streets were not safe at night also increased from 53 - to 54-percent, though the annual average jumped 6.2 points from 44.3- to 50.5-percent.”

Just a one-percent rise, one might say. But with 63 percent feeling their homes are not safe from break- ins and 54 percent saying the streets are not safe at night shows a lot of people feeling very insecure about their safety. Officials may say that’s a normal number for us through the years, but that may be our bigger problem.

Street crime is one thing. There is also the breakdown in peace talks with the communists. Expect a resurgence of NPA violence as they make their presence felt.

I heard an upscale beach resort in Batangas had been raided by the NPA over failure to pay revolutionary tax. The NPA raiders took all the guns of the security, two Benzes and a Hi-Ace van as well. That’s too close to Metro Manila for comfort. I have once spent a weekend in that resort with my family.

President Duterte was elected on the basis of people’s hopes and dreams of living peacefully. The President rightly saw the drug problem as an important cause of our peace and order worries. Lately, he also saw that on top of the drug problem, the corrupt and undisciplined police force must also be addressed. By President Duterte’s own estimate, as much as 40 percent of our police are dangerous and armed crooks.

I watched the live streaming of President Duterte cursing 228 police officers accused of various crimes. I heard him say that “It has been the sad experience of this country that most vicious criminals are karamihan ex-police, ex-military man.”

The President scolded the police

officers for preying on small fish and extorting money from innocent people whom they, later on, kill or charge for nothing. “Alam ko ang sahod ninyo maliit, kaya ako naghanap ng pera at inuna kayo by the end of this year doblado ng sweldo niyo tapos ganyan.”

President Duterte told the police officers they have the choice of either being assigned to Basilan or resigning. He gave the police officers a pretty bad tongue lashing they should never forget. But I think he should have done more if he wants to regain citizen confidence in government’s ability to assure our personal safety.

The President must order the PNP Chief to provide the public a regular report on the status of cases involving police officers accused of heinous crimes. They must show they are acting on the problem and not coddling the criminals in uniform.

The public wants to know what happened to the Mindoro police officers who killed an anti crime crusader… the police officers involved in killing a father and son while in their custody in Pasay as well as the Malate police officers who thought they killed a tricycle driver who later on testified about the rubout operation. There are many more.

Who can forget that CCTV video shown by Sen Ping Lacson of policemen planting drugs in an office and later conducting a drug raid there? The business owner was supposedly asked to pay a large sum of money.

The locals aren’t the only ones feeling insecure. Our foreign guests who have invested in our economy and created jobs have publicly expressed fear about their safety.

The Joint Foreign Chambers pointed out: “We promote trade and investment between their respective countries and regions in both directions, but can only succeed in their mission if peace and order and safety can be guaranteed by the authorities… The kidnapping

and brutal killing of Jee Ick- joo puts these expected guarantees in question.”

Indeed… the gruesome murder of the Korean was done right in police headquarters at Camp Crame. This has to be a horrible manifestation of the total breakdown in discipline in our national police. No wonder victims think more than twice before reporting a crime, unsure if the police officer at the desk is part of the criminal syndicate within the PNP.

The Korean’s murder did what some 7,000 killings of lower class Filipinos failed to do. It fired up anger within President Duterte to the point of making him sideline the PNP in his flagship anti drug war. He was angry enough last Tuesday to tell the police officers to wait until his term ends and he is ready to face them in a gunfight. He then cursed them some more: “Leche kayo.”

Reviving the Philippine Constabulary will not change much because it is a people problem. What President Duterte needs now is a really tough police officer to lead the clean-up of the PNP. We are thinking of someone like Sen Ping Lacson.

General Bato doesn’t seem to have what it takes. He is too showbiz for comfort. They must be laughing behind his back. Ping, on the other hand, was both respected and feared. Surely, there must be someone like him in the ranks of PNP officers who can take over.

President Duterte knows exactly what he must do. But he cannot do it alone. He must find that clone of Ping Lacson if he wants a disciplined police force and not one that brings him headaches and international embarrassment.

government is the provision of peace and order. Without it, government is useless... it fails to provide its reason for being.

Boo Chanco’s e- mail address is bchanco@gmail. com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco