Wanted: A more serious Bato

Interior Secretary Mike Sueno’s statement that policemen who violated standard procedure during the violent dispersal in front of the US Embassy will be punished is laudable.

Many cops think that under the Duterte administration, they will not be held liable for any act of violence if it is done in the performance of their duties.

But President Digong’s pronouncement that those who resist arrest will be killed applies only to drug pushers and criminals, not innocent citizens.

Sueno has called on the Philippine National Police to conduct a thorough probe of the incident.

I was in China at the time and I shuddered when I saw a video of the police van ramming into the crowd of protesters and running down some of them.

I said to myself, “This never happened when I was a police reporter covering demonstrations and rallies. This is too much.”

When I talked to PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa at the coffee shop of the hotel we were staying, he told me, “The policeman driving the van panicked.”

If I were Bato, I would have flown back to Manila pronto upon receiving the report on the incident.

By the way, why did Bato join the President’s huge delegation to China when he’s neither a Cabinet member nor a business tycoon?

Mano Digong said he would talk to the driver of the runaway police van, PO3 Franklin Kho.

Luckily for him, nobody was killed although some protesters suffered minor injuries.

Mr. Duterte said he would ask Kho for an explanation.

Kho had come up with a good one, otherwise he would get a beating from the President himself.

When he was Davao City mayor, Mano Digong beat up policemen who abused

civilians.

After we arrived from China on Saturday night, I asked Bato to please do something about abuses committed by his subordinates, especially those in the lower ranks.

“Sige, yariin natin sila (Okay, let’s punish them),” said Bato, smiling.

Bato, who now basks in the limelight, should get serious in dealing with cops who abuse civilians. I believe there are more cases now compared to before.

I remember the case of an overseas worker, Mark Anthony Culata, 27, who was home for a visit when he was stopped at a mobile checkpoint in Cavite. His body was later found with a tag that said, “I am a pusher.”

The police station where Culata was taken could not explain why he was killed.

His parents said one of the cops who had apprehended him was the boyfriend of Culata’s former girlfriend whom the victim was still seeing.

Yes, Bato has his hands full going after drug pushers, dealers and traffickers but he should also pay attention to other crimes, particularly those involving policemen.

There’s a time for antics and a time to get down to business.

I hope President Digong gets to read this and admonish his PNP chief not to clown around so much.

Many policemen are taking advantage of the war on drugs.

I have no idea how many are using their badge to settle scores against their personal enemies, but they could be behind many of the 3,000 cases of drug-related killings.

The death of Zenaida Luz, a crime watch volunteer in Mindoro who was gunned down by Senior Insp. Magdaleno Pimentel Jr. and Insp. Markson Almenares, would have been blamed on “vigilantes” if the two ranking cops hadn’t been caught.

Other cops send text messages to rich Chinese or foreigners to warn them that their names are on the list of drug lords and then shake them down.