A woman-beating policeman

PO1 RENATO Aniceto of the Quezon City Police District is another cop who might soon join the ranks of the unemployed.

Aniceto punched a woman after she complained that he and other cops were late in responding to her call for help.

Aniceto’s abusive behavior reached Director Leonardo Espina, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

Espina immediately ordered Aniceto disarmed, relieved of his assignment, and suspended while facing an administrative case.

Because of the gravity of the offense—hitting a woman—the penalty is dismissal from the service.

The woman-beating cop should be out of the service in one month.

All administrative cases filed against Metro Manila policemen will be disposed of within one month of their filing upon orders from General Espina.

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The only way to put a stop to abuses committed by law enforcement officers against civilians is to resolve criminal and administrative cases filed against them with dispatch.

Administrative cases against cops and other law enforcement officers usually drag on for months and even years.

Due to the long delay, most complaints against cops are eventually dropped as complainants lose interest in pursuing their cases.

Even administrative cases filed with the National Police Commission, which has a reputation for holding speedy trials, also take months.

Espina’s example of acting with dispatch on complaints of civilians against policemen should be emulated by other regional directors in the Philippine National Police (PNP).

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SPO1 Lampur Hermosura of the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office wanted to please a friend who had a misunderstanding with his neighbor.

The friend asked Hermosura to put his neighbor, John Kenneth Estioko, to shame by accompanying a group of employees from an electric company who inspected the electrical meter in Estioko’s house.

There would have been nothing wrong with the inspection had it not occurred in the middle of Estioko’s birthday party.

In the eyes of his guests, Estioko was not paying his electric bill.

But Estioko had always paid his electric bill promptly.

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My friend, Abe Chavez, saw a man pick the pocket of a fellow passenger at the Light Train Transit (LRT) Vito Cruz station in Manila.

He promptly informed an LRT security guard about it.

But instead of accosting the pickpocket, the security guard just shook his head and told Chavez: “Sir, it’s not my job to go after criminals, that’s the job of the police.”

That security guard reminds me of the “blue guards” at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 who just watched while a passenger coming out of the terminal building was being robbed recently.

I learned about the robbery from a passenger of a Cebu Pacific plane that landed at the Naia 3.

I have it on good authority that the security agency under contract to guard the premises of the airport complex pays a Naia official a huge monthly retainer.

* * *

If only curses from clients could kill, Globe Telecom would have died of hexing.

Millions of Globe Telecom mobile phone subscribers feel they are being given the short end of the bargain due to the firm’s inefficiency.

Complaints of dropped calls, no signal, prepaid load being consumed without the client using it are common among Globe Telecom clients.

Globe’s reply to complaints is “to bear with us because we’re improving our system.”

But when will the company improve its service—when the crow turns white?