Sen. Panfilo Lacson
Policemen in Porsches or Lamborghinis conducting surveillance on suspected criminals?
Why not? asked Sen. Panfilo Lacson. If the police and military get to keep smuggled Hummers, why can’t the government also donate to them all the vehicles it has confiscated?
Lacson raised the point on Thursday following reports that President Duterte ordered smuggled Hummers to be given to the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces instead of being destroyed.
Of the 69 illegally imported luxury sedans and motorcycles seized by authorities in Cagayan province, around 10 were Hummers.
Hummers spared
The rest of the vehicles and motorcycles were publicly destroyed last month but the Hummers were spared after Mr. Duterte said these would be donated to the AFP and PNP for their use.
“Instead of bulldozing the other vehicles, these could have been distributed for government use,” Lacson said at the Kapihan sa Senado forum.
According to Lacson, the vehicles could have been put to good use in intelligence operations.
“The Armed Forces and the PNP are also lacking [in vehicles]. Even the Porsches could be used for surveillance,” he said.
Nobody would suspect that a Porsche moving around a criminal’s hideout was being used by police, he said.
Easier to detect if…
“It’s good for them to have different kinds of vehicles because now, it’s easy to detect them. The criminals, drug lords, drug dealers know what a police vehicle looks like. If they see a Mahindra, they know it’s [the] police,” he said.
The PNP uses India-made Mahindra patrol vehicles.
It’s better to confuse the criminals by using different vehicles, even Porsches and Ferraris, said Lacson. “I just hope that the President reconsiders destroying all these government properties.”