Why college grads end up in the PNP

Many graduates who can’t find employment after college enter the Philippine National Police (PNP), not for the prestige of being a law enforcer but so they can lord it over hapless citizens.

Chief Insp. Isidro Cariño of the Northern Police District Crime Laboratory is one such cop.

Cariño figured in an altercation over a parking incident at Robinsons Galleria in the Ortigas complex, Quezon City, on March 18.

The parking area’s closed circuit television camera showed that the police officer was at fault: His car, a Montero sport utility vehicle (SUV), bumped the right front fender of a Jeep Rubicon.

The Jeep Rubicon SUV, which was being driven by an attendant to a vacant parking space, was at full stop when it was bumped by the Montero.

Instead of settling the minor incident with the owner who had entrusted his car to the parking attendant, Cariño pulled rank, introducing himself as a member of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

He forced the attendant, Raul Christian Ison, to drive the Jeep Rubicon to Camp Karingal despite protests from security guards in the area.

Cariño said he didn’t trust the security guards at the mall parking area who, according to him, would surely side with the owner of the Jeep Rubicon.

The owner of the Jeep Rubicon, a restaurant owner, tried at least 30 times to get in touch with Cariño but he never returned the calls.

My office, Isumbong Mo kay Tulfo, which received the complaint of apparent arrogance of power, found out that Cariño entered the PNP as a chemist.

A chemist is not a line officer or a true blue cop, but one who works on the sidelines like a priest, doctor or nurse within the police organization.

In the parking incident, he claimed membership of the CIDG, the PNP’s most feared operating unit, so he would be able to instill fear in the owner of the car that he damaged.

There are thousands of Cariños within the PNP who put the organization to shame because of their abusive behavior.

Because of them, many aggrieved citizens don’t run to the police for protection or redress; they take the law into their own hands.

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Have you seen a uniformed policeman standing on a street corner or pounding the beat, so to speak, in Metro Manila lately?

Seldom, if ever.

The few cops you see on the street corner are not standing but seated, oblivious to their surroundings.

They’re too busy manipulating their cell phones like children who have just acquired the gadget for the first time.

No wonder that many cops, especially the new ones, have lost their pistols because of their inattentiveness to their job: the Tagalog word for it is “katangahan.”

There is a risk that some guys riding tandem on a motorcycle may grab the pistol of the uniformed law enforcers who are focused on their cell phone, not their surroundings.

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The PNP high command should prohibit policemen from using their cellular phones while on duty.

One exception: When the beat patrolman gets in touch with his station from time to time to let them know that everything’s all right with him.

You see, policemen on patrol are not given two-way radios to allow them to report their activities to their stations.