“To serve and to protect”. This is the motto of the Philippine National Police, a pledge proudly emblazoned on its vehicles and usually displayed in its offices. Unfortunately, the spate of recent allegations pointing to the involvement of policemen in various crimes raises the relevant question as to who will protect us from our supposed protectors when they themselves are alleged to be deeply involved in criminal activities from kidnapping, murder and even rape.
It is well that the leadership of the PNP has taken cognizance of this dangerous trend among those who are supposed to be the first ones to uphold the law and not break it. There are those who tend to dismiss incidents like these as isolated ones, further claiming that a few rotten eggs in police uniform do not reflect on the general state of discipline among the police forces. That might be so, but try living through a hairy experience when the policeman whom you trust to help and protect you turns out to be the criminal himself. Then the “isolated case” stance might not sound as comforting as it is supposed to sound. And those incidents that have hit the headlines are only the more dramatic, if not heinous, ones
For it is common knowledge among our countrymen that many police officers try to augment their income from such notorious sidelines as protectors of jueteng operations, illegal drugs trafficking and even prostitution. Many forms of underworld activities in this country will not flourish without the protection of police forces, if they are not the ones themselves engaged in them. Then our police forces still have to live down the Luneta hostage fiasco which made the headlines worldwide last August and from which it’s image as an incompetent force for rescue operations has not yet fully recovered.
And it is not lost to keen observers that these anomalies are not confined to the lower ranks of our police forces. The fugitive senator, Panfilo Lacson, is on the run because of a warrant of arrest for his alleged involvement in the Dacer-Corbito double-murder case committed during Erap’s presidency when Lacson was the head of the PNP.
We mention all this to locate in the proper context the question raised as to who will protect us from our supposed protector when as the incidents have shown these are not isolated cases exactly. But we cannot really expect our police forces to uphold the law when they see the top political leadership of the country the first ones to violate them with impunity. This was especially true during the previous administration when all forms of criminality flourished in the country.
Let us hope that the current administration will prove itself different from its predecessor in matters of law enforcement. Not in words, but in deeds.
It is well that the leadership of the PNP has taken cognizance of this dangerous trend among those who are supposed to be the first ones to uphold the law and not break it. There are those who tend to dismiss incidents like these as isolated ones, further claiming that a few rotten eggs in police uniform do not reflect on the general state of discipline among the police forces. That might be so, but try living through a hairy experience when the policeman whom you trust to help and protect you turns out to be the criminal himself. Then the “isolated case” stance might not sound as comforting as it is supposed to sound. And those incidents that have hit the headlines are only the more dramatic, if not heinous, ones
For it is common knowledge among our countrymen that many police officers try to augment their income from such notorious sidelines as protectors of jueteng operations, illegal drugs trafficking and even prostitution. Many forms of underworld activities in this country will not flourish without the protection of police forces, if they are not the ones themselves engaged in them. Then our police forces still have to live down the Luneta hostage fiasco which made the headlines worldwide last August and from which it’s image as an incompetent force for rescue operations has not yet fully recovered.
And it is not lost to keen observers that these anomalies are not confined to the lower ranks of our police forces. The fugitive senator, Panfilo Lacson, is on the run because of a warrant of arrest for his alleged involvement in the Dacer-Corbito double-murder case committed during Erap’s presidency when Lacson was the head of the PNP.
We mention all this to locate in the proper context the question raised as to who will protect us from our supposed protector when as the incidents have shown these are not isolated cases exactly. But we cannot really expect our police forces to uphold the law when they see the top political leadership of the country the first ones to violate them with impunity. This was especially true during the previous administration when all forms of criminality flourished in the country.
Let us hope that the current administration will prove itself different from its predecessor in matters of law enforcement. Not in words, but in deeds.
