Cover-up within PNP

One of President Digong’s big headaches is the undisciplined Philippine National Police (PNP).

The other big problems are drugs, criminality and corruption.

The President may want to solve the three problems in this order: drugs and criminality first; corruption in government second; and finally, abusive policemen.

The PNP is among the most undisciplined police organizations in the world.

Most policemen in this country think the citizenry should curtsy to them when they pass by.

They think their motto, “to serve and protect,” is a useless catchphrase because the people should be ones to kowtow to them.

They try to cover up for each other’s crime unless the misdeed is so blatant that covering up is impossible.

Do you think the drug problem would have reached crisis proportions if policemen arrested, or informed on, their comrades who were selling seized drugs or protecting drug pushers and traffickers?

President Digong has offered P2 million for each “ninja cop,” a policeman who sells seized drugs.

If citizens, attracted by the big reward, report ninja cops the PNP will be decimated.

But if the President included policemen who keep silent while ninja cops or those coddling drug peddlers do their thing, the PNP will be cut in size by more than one-half.

Why is this columnist all het up about the cover-up within the PNP?

Because most complaints against abusive cops that my public service program, “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo,” had referred to different units within the PNP, and even to the National Police Commission (Napolcom), have not been acted upon.

For example, the Napolcom seems to be taking its own sweet time in dismissing a police superintendent who shot to death a 15-year-old boy four years ago when he saw the boy scrounging for scraps in an abandoned building in Makati.

A senior inspector who raped a married woman remains in the service.

A Police Officer 1, the lowest rank in the PNP, was charged with killing a teenager during a drunken brawl 16 years ago. He was dismissed last year but his dismissal became null because he died of cancer the year before.

The three are just representatives of the many cases against policemen who abused civilians that “Isumbong” pursued.

There was a case filed by the sister of a student who became paralyzed after he was shot by a policeman in Cavite when he looked in the direction of the cop who was drunk; the case remains pending after two years.

What takes the cake in police abuse is the shooting to death of an anti-crime crusader by two cops on a motorcycle in Mindoro.

The two are no ordinary, low-ranking policemen—Senior Insp. Magdaleno Pimentel Jr. and Insp. Markson Almeranez, both graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy, the PNP counterpart of the Philippine Military Academy.

Why the two police officials killed an ally in crime-fighting and a woman at that, Zenaida Luz, only they know.