More gripes vs cops than soldiers

Vietnamese militants have strongly protested against China regarding disputed territorial waters off the Paracel Islands.

That’s how serious the Vietnamese are.

But why are our militants not making too much noise over our country’s row with China over our claim to other islands in the West Philippine Sea?

Only a small group of radicals joined the Vietnamese in that demonstration staged recently in front of the Chinese consular office in Makati City, and in another protest earlier.

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Militants would not protest whenever the New People’s Army (NPA) ambushed soldiers or policemen who were on noncombat missions.

But they would protest to high heavens when the military would kill—intentionally or otherwise—NPA sympathizers.

Some observers say that when soldiers or policemen on noncombat missions are killed, it looked like it was “all right” with these militants.

But when NPA rebels are killed, the militants complain about violations of human rights.

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I noticed that the number of complaints against soldiers by civilians can be counted on the fingers of one hand as compared to complaints against policemen.

That’s as far as my public service program, Isumbong Mo kay Tulfo, is concerned.

In the 23 years of “Isumbong,” my staff and I have only received not more than a dozen complaints against soldiers from civilians.

On the other hand, complaints against cops by ordinary citizens are so numerous we have lost track of the count.

You see, of the average 10 complaints we receive at Isumbong daily, four or five are against cops.

We help the aggrieved citizens file criminal and administrative cases against erring cops.

We keep track of the progress of the investigation and hearing of each complaint against policemen, which usually takes years.

A case of a cop killing a teenager he mistook for a troublemaker, for example, took 13 years before it was resolved on the administrative level.

In that span of time, the cop, who was still a rookie with the rank of PO1 already became an SPO2 (senior police officer 2), equivalent to a staff sergeant in the Army.

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On the other hand, most complaints against soldiers were resolved fast.

The respondent-soldiers were either demoted or dismissed from the service.