Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. has called for an investigation of the loss of valuables belonging to his wife, one of the 37 victims who died of suffocation during the attack on Resorts World Manila.
Elizabeth was missing her Rolex watch and other possessions, including an ATM card which was used to withdraw P25,000 from her account three days after her death.
Who else should be questioned for this but the hotel security guards, policemen and firemen who responded to the incident?
Who would dare steal from the dead but those who handled their bodies?
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Gonzales and his fellow legislators should also investigate the alleged theft of P200 million from Resorts World in the middle of the confusion following the attack.
Why confine the investigation to his personal loss when he could look into the loss of public trust in our law enforcers?
One is reminded of this joke:
The New York Police Department gets to the crime scene in five minutes flat.
The London bobbies arrive in four minutes, Hong Kong cops in three and Singapore policemen in two.
And the police in Metro Manila? They’re at the crime scene within seconds. Why? Because they’re the criminals!
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Most police rookies lack dedication to their job and this is evident by their actions.
Try to observe a rookie cop or even a veteran policeman on patrol in Metro Manila — if you can even see one.
They just stay at a street corner oblivious to what’s going on around them, tinkering with their phones instead of walking around the block.
If they’re in a patrol car, they park it in an isolated spot and take a nap inside.
I noticed that policemen assigned to guard the Philippine Information Agency building in Quezon City were just seated, reading messages on their phones.
In contrast, the security guards would salute VIPs entering the building while the cops were focused on their phones.
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I beg the reader’s indulgence for citing for the nth time the discipline of the defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC), forerunner of the present Philippine National Police (PNP).
Comparing the PC to the PNP is like comparing a Toyota Land Cruiser to a tricycle.
My father, then a PC captain, chanced upon a PC trooper sleeping at the guardhouse in Camp Bumpus, Tacloban City, in 1963.
From his jeep, my old man went straight to the sleeping trooper, took out his helmet and bopped the trooper’s head with it. He then relieved the man of his post and kept him to the stockade for five days.
If that had happened today, my father would have been shot by his subordinate on the spot.