There’s only one drastic but surefire way to eliminate the scalawags in the Philippine National Police: Line them up against the wall and shoot them.
But that would decimate the PNP that only half of the force would remain.
So what’s the best way to get rid of the bad eggs in the police force short of resorting to executing them?
Make the PNP a paramilitary organization where discipline is the hallmark.
Some members of the PNP, which replaced the Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP), have become so undisciplined after it took on a civilian character.
In the PC-INP, which had a military setup, a superior could order a subordinate jailed or demoted on the spot for grave or blatant violation of rules.
Not so in the PNP.
An administrative complaint against a policeman goes through such a long and tedious process that the civilian complainant gives up or just forgives the offender.
For all its perceived faults, the PC-INP was better-trained and more disciplined than the PNP that replaced it.
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The law requiring all policemen to be college graduates should be amended.
PNP rookies find cleaning toilets during training as part of instilling discipline beneath them.
“I didn’t go to college just to become a janitor,” a police trainee was quoted as saying.
If the law is amended, high school graduates can enter the PNP, like those applying to enlist in the Armed Forces.
High school graduates are more pliable and easier to handle than college grads who already have grown horns because of their supposedly “high education.”
The Philippine Constabulary was an efficient organization despite, or because of, the lack of educational qualifications of its rank and file.
Sergeants or corporals in the old PC, who didn’t even finish elementary school, were respected and loved by civilians because they were very disciplined.
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If the higher-ups insist on retaining the “nonmilitary” character of the PNP, but more disciplined, they should abolish the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA).
All police candidates should start as rookies (Police Officer 1) and undergo two years of rigorous military-type training.
Those who are college graduates could get promoted faster than their high school colleagues only after passing tests for higher positions and undergoing further training.
High school graduates will be given a chance to catch up with their college graduate comrades by going back to school or taking further police training.
The PNPA has produced the most corrupt and abusive members of the police organization.
Why is that so? At the PNPA, junior cadets are already exposed to corruption when senior cadets order them to “produce money from nowhere.”
Most junior cadets, who come from poor families, beg, steal or borrow from their fellow junior cadets to comply with the illegal order.
So when they graduate from the PNPA, they have fully blossomed into extortionists, thieves or robbers.
Most of the police officials involved in the Edsa kidnapping incident are members of PNPA Class 2001.