Blame it on Napolcom

For beating up two people inside a bar in Valenzuela City more than two weeks ago, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agent Gretch Tuazon is in hot water.

NBI Director Dante Gierran wants Tuazon, an intelligence agent of the bureau’s regional operations service, kicked out of the service should an internal investigation find him guilty.

Tuazon reportedly beat up Marlon Mauricio and Ivy Franco at the Papa Foi Bar in Barangay Karuhatan.

Tuazon was a guest at Franco’s birthday celebration when he allegedly had an altercation with Mauricio.

“Abusive agents destroy our name and they should be weeded out,” said Gierran who wants a speedy investigation of the administrative case against Tuazon.

There will be fewer abusive lawmen — police, NBI and other law enforcement agencies — if complaints against them are dealt with promptly.

Yes, there should be due process as their side must be heard but this should not mean lengthy investigations.

Administrative cases against members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), for example, take years to resolve, making complainants lose interest in pursuing the case.

My public service program, “Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo,” is witness to the exceedingly long delay in the resolution of administrative and criminal cases against erring policemen.

A Pasig City cop who shot and killed a teenager during a videoke bar brawl, which started when he tried to grab the microphone from the victim, was ordered dismissed from the service only after 20 years.

However, the dismissal order could no longer be served as the policeman had died of cancer months earlier.

And irony of ironies, the criminal case against him is still pending in court!

I should know; my program initiated the filing of both criminal and administrative complaints against the cop.

The National Police Commission (Napolcom) which directly oversees the PNP is notorious for reinstating dismissed policemen.

Many policemen who have been kicked out for various offenses by PNP administrative bodies were able to return to active duty because of Napolcom.

In many of those cases, the policemen were “guilty beyond reasonable doubt,” to borrow  court lingo, yet they were reinstated by the Napolcom for reasons only the police body knows.

If there are many corrupt and abusive policemen still with the force, blame it on Napolcom.

The police body is as corrupt as or even more corrupt than the agency it oversees: the PNP.

Let’s hope and pray we don’t reach that point when aggrieved citizens take the law into their own hands or seek redress from nongovernment organizations like the New People’s Army.

The government should act now before it’s too late.