I AGREE with the proposal of Sen. Franklin Drilon that the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) should be used for the social services needs of the legislators’ constituents.
Social services include medical assistance for indigent patients or the construction of school buildings.
My public service program, “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo,” has asked medical assistance or medicines several times from the office of Senator Drilon for several indigent patients.
I’m taking this opportunity to thank Sen. Drilon on behalf of those poor patients.
* * *
It’s now prohibited for a Metro Manila cop in uniform to pick his or her nose in public.
Male cops in uniform were also warned, under pain of disciplinary action, against scratching their private parts in public.
The order comes from the new leadership of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).
* * *
Although these acts are not illegal, a cop should be a paragon of good manners.
It’s like seeing a policeman or policewoman wearing an unpressed uniform or a uniform that hasn’t been laundered for months.
But the new NCRPO leadership should hand down more serious injunctions for its rank-and-file cops.
* * *
It should require its members not to send personal text messages or make personal calls while they’re on duty.
It should also require uniformed cops to stand on their feet in an erect posture when they’re at street corners.
I’ve seen many uniformed policemen busily “texting,” talking to someone using their cellular phones or sitting on chairs when they’re posted at street corners.
Such scenes are signs of poor discipline which, it goes without saying, most Filipino cops are known for.
* * *
I’ve been to Hong Kong and Singapore many times and I admire the way uniformed cops in those former British colonies conduct themselves in public.
Cops over there are always on their feet. They maintain an erect posture, their bellies flat, making them look very dignified.
There was a time in the distant past— oldtimers say before the Second World War and in the 50s—when our uniformed policemen looked dignified and acted with dignity. Those were the golden years of law enforcement.
There’s no reason why we can’t bring those years back.
* * *
Region XI Director Benjamin Go of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) in Davao City is a suspect in the murders of two jeepney operators in the city. A local newspaper reported that Go had been summoned by the police to shed light on the murders.
The LTFRB should temporarily relieve Go while he is under investigation.