The Philippine National Police is so corrupt and inefficient that it should be disbanded and replaced by another agency.
Reviving the Philippine Constabulary (PC), which was abolished by President Cory, is one option that President Digong is mulling over.
The PC, a military organization and therefore disciplined, was disbanded and replaced by the civilian PNP during Cory’s time because she deemed it responsible for oppressing her husband, Ninoy.
PNP personnel who are honest and efficient could be absorbed by the revived PC or the Armed Forces while the rest could form the nucleus of local police forces.
Another option would be for President Digong to turn over all law enforcement powers of the disbanded PNP to the National Bureau of Investigation.
Come to think of it, why is the PNP at par with the NBI, which is mostly composed of lawyers, accountants and other specialists?
The NBI may retain its present number of agents—as long as they are all specialists and are dedicated—and call on the military as its force multiplier during times of lawlessness, like now.
Commissioner Caesar Dulay of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) raised some eyebrows when he ordered Mighty Corp., an all-Filipino cigarette company, investigated for alleged use of fake cigarette tax stamps.
Why? Because he excluded PMFTC, the tobacco industry leader licensed to manufacture Philip Morris, from the BIR probe.
No less than Clint Jesus Aranas, BIR deputy commissioner for legal affairs, pointed out the unfairness of the BIR chief’s order.
“It is unfair to single out Mighty. We should also investigate others to get to the bottom of the problem and determine where the counterfeits are coming from,” said Aranas.
PMFTC is no saint either.
Philip Morris has been charged in Thailand with evading taxes for allegedly under-declaring import prices of its cigarettes from the Philippines, and is facing a $2.2-billion fine.
In South Korea, the National Tax Service, that country’s counterpart of our BIR, was reported to be conducting an extensive tax probe into Philip Morris-Korea.
So, why is Dulay treating PMFTC with kid gloves?
There is no need for the government to raise taxes which will burden the rich—and the middle class even more.
President Digong will just have to rid the BIR and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) of corrupt officials and employees for proper taxes to be collected.
Hundreds of billions of pesos in taxes and duties are not collected because huge amounts go to their pockets.
If the President really wants an honest-to-goodness collection of taxes and duties, he should privatize the two agencies.
At the hands of private collectors, BIR and BoC will generate income for the government a hundred times more than its present collection.