LORD Almighty, protect us from policemen if they’re like the ones who kidnapped and killed Korean Jee Ick Joo and (how many) others in similar circumstances!
Thursday’s Senate inquiry was turning into a gray area between NBI and PNP investigators – a “banggaan” (conflicting statements), according to Senator Ping Lacson – when a CCTV tape broke the afternoon lull. And what a shocker it was!
The tape showed a group of men that Ping identified as policemen wearing blue caps and sweaters as they sneaked into an office to “plant” shabu. Moments later, they exited, only to return with more raiders, and they began to slap, push and herd the office workers into a corner, where they were made to sit on the floor.
The tape was silent, but it spoke volumes, in loud volumes of terror and alarm, to those inside and outside the session hall. We have a new breed of terrorists and they are policemen. They operate like terrorists, unafraid of no one and the consequences, they are armed and apparently above the law, answerable to no one. Senator Ping, a former police chief, and Gen. Bato de la Rosa, PNP chief, were speechless.
For obvious reasons, Ping would not reveal the name of the owner of the office, who was forced to “cough up” P9 million. He did make a slip of the tongue, that cops are drawn to Chinatown, Binondo. Tessie Ang See, who reports crimes that PNP would rather not hear about, has more horror/terror stories to tell, and they all end the same way.
As Chief Bato put it, SPO3 Sta. Isabel, looking like a meek little lamb in a mauve shirt, was a suspect in a kidnapping in 2007 “but the case did not prosper.”
That’s the problem of PNP in dealing with terrorists sidelining as cops and robbers. Even when an evil cop has established a pattern of misconduct, he is not kicked out; instead he is kept and later promoted, to spread the contagion and grow his modus operandi while prospering his and his partner’s businesses.
Cops who abuse the President’s vow to “go to jail for you” should remember that’s not all he said, the second part of that sentence being, “when you shoot to defend yourself in the performance of your duty.” (Jullie Y. Daza)
