IT?S EASY for us to blame the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) policemen who handled the 11-hour hostage drama Monday at the Rizal Park that ended in a bloodbath.

Those cops were clearly not prepared to deal with that kind of crisis.

All of us?you, me and the government?should take the blame for our bungling cops.

We have a short memory.

Remember that incident in Pasay City years ago when a problem-crazed man held hostage a boy at a bus station? That incident also ended with the young hostage dead, along with the hostage-taker.

But did we, the citizenry, call for a well-trained special police unit to handle grave situations like a hostage crisis?

No, we didn?t. We just dismissed that incident as ?just one of those things.?

In the aftermath of Monday?s bloody drama at the Rizal Park, many of us say it was an ?isolated incident.?

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The reason bloody incidents like the one at Rizal Park and tragedies such as typhoon ?Ondoy? keep recurring is that Filipinos take misfortunes like a joke.

We make jokes about other people?s miseries and mistakes.

One day after the Rizal Park incident, jokes about the bumbling cops involved in the rescue started circulating.

The acronym SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) had taken on different meanings:

Sorry We Aren?t Trained.

Sugod, Wait, Atras, Tago (Attack, Wait, Retreat, Hide)

Sana Wag Ako Tamaan (Hope I don?t get hit)

Sobrang Wala Akong Training (I?m very much ill-trained)

Here?s a wry comment from a friend about the incident: ?The Luneta massacre shows that our policemen are trained for HOSTESS-TAKING, not hostage-taking,? an obvious reference to cops who raid sleazy bars and force bar girls to have sex with them.

The Manila Police District was once known as ?Manila?s Finest.?

According to the current joke, it is now the ?Philippines? Worst.?

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For a long, long time, the police will be the butt of jokes.

If that carnage at the Luneta Park took place in Japan, the chief of the national police, the district police chief, the immediate supervisor of the cops who undertook the so-called rescue would have resigned or committed hara kiri (suicide) out of shame.

But not our police officials.
They are blaming the low-ranking cops instead.

They really have no shame.

* * *

When the ?euro generals? scandal broke out, the Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership said the big amount of money confiscated from the PNP delegation by the Russian customs belonged to the government.

In fact, most of the amount was allegedly owned by Cynthia Verzosa, wife of then newly appointed PNP chief, who was the de facto head of the delegation.

Did Verzosa resign?

No, he didn?t. He even passed the blame on Director Ely de la Paz, his mistah (classmate) at the Philippine Military Academy who was about to retire.

The PNP has the kind of leadership that does not take responsibility for mistakes but passes them on to scapegoats.

* * *

President Noy?s admission of lapses in the police operation at the Luneta incident is quite admirable.

He, in effect, took the rap for the booboo.

But he should not, since a leader who delegates responsibility has people under him who should be taking the blame.

Heads of high PNP officials should roll as a result of the Luneta massacre.