By Neil John Carandang
THE PNP (Philippine National Police) promised to serve and protect the public. Although there are many who have been questioning their credibility, their goal now is to regain the trust of those whom they serve.
The botched hostage rescue and allegations of police brutality among others reduced public faith in the country’s internal peace-keeping force and the PNP themselves know that. Their mission now is to change the public’s impression and ‘prove their worth,’ so to speak.
The history of PNP is “highlighted” with a lot of failed operations and anomalies, thus, earning different insulting meanings, as a form of derision, including the Department’s acronym and for the police; Pahingi ng Pera (PNP), the pulis patola,and kotong cops.
The concept of PNP as pahingi ng pera started during the hype of the massive corruption of the manila police in streets; they have been labeled as the “Kotong cops” of the Philippines.
Kotong is a form of forced bribery commonly known as “lagay.” In plain sight, “kotong” is actually stealing. “Pulis Patola” is a term coined as form of ridicule for those who accept briberies from authorities.
The PNP has been receiving a lot of negative criticism and which many believe to be self-imposed.
Amid the ridicule : “Kayo ang aming boss”
“We in the police department do not let negative issues affect our jobs in protecting the citizens,” said Manila Police District (MPD) Explosive and Ordinance Division Police in Chief Oliver Sotto Navales. According to the officer, highlighting failed operations of policemen is to be expected from the media.
“(For the media) If there is good news, it is not good news but if there is bad news then it’s good news,” he added.
Policemen believe that the media are able to detect errors easily and will magnify them at all costs. Navales insisted that the department does not tolerate any faulty actions coming from their members despite the recent reports on police torture in station 2 in Tondo, Manila, where a suspected snatcher was tortured to death.
But in regards with the actions of the SWAT in the Quirino Grandstand hostage Drama, Navales took a deep breath and explained that the police just wanted to resolve the situation.
“The police wanted nothing more than to save the lives of the hostages and capture the suspect, who, unfortunately, was also a policeman,” he said.
According to Maj. Navales, their public negative image did not shake them, but has in fact, made them stronger and more determined to improve.
Maximano Ricafort, brother of the former (MPD) Explosive and Ordinance Division Police in Chief Major Ricafort, claimed that in his brother’s time of office, he had been also staying in the MPD office and he had been good friends with the police, gaining access to the issues in the department.
He believes that corruption had long entered the PNP and remains doubtful if it can still be removed from the system.
He said that the PNP’s system starts with corruption, there is a quota in accepting police every year, therefore, there are limited slots which the aspiring trainees pay for.
“Those who are really qualified loose their chance because of this corrupted system. Even in our time, this already existed, but it was around 50k back then, now I heard it has reached double.” Maximano said.
SPOTLIGHT: Does the PNP still have the trust of the majority?
An independent market research study conducted by The Digital Edge in behalf of Reader’s Digest was held in the Philippines last year. It aims to determine the trust level people have in the given list of 40 professions. The survey showed that the level trust people have on our police officers is not as high compared to our army officials and media, only getting a mean score of 4.75 out of the perfect mean score of 10 percent.
Collective insights from the masses
According to Danny Depas, 37 years-old taxi driver, thoughts that appear in his mind once he hears the “police” are fear, irritation, and discomfort.
He has been driver for almost 16 years. He saw the ups and downs of the practices of street police over the years.
For him the leader or the president is the key in minimizing the abusive policemen.
“If the president does a clean job, then there is no reason for the lower officials to do stupid things, especially the police officers,” he said
He hated the Arroyo’s administration the most; this is the time that he had encountered a lot of significant harassment coming from the police.
“Cory’s and Ramos’ administration was good, the police were “good” back then, the best was in Erap’s administration, street policeman is not the stick to us drivers, but the worst is in Arroyo’s administration.” He said.
Meanwhile, Lamberto Santos III, a 3rd year law student from the University of Santo Tomas believes that if our policemen are being paid justly, then, there would be no corruption among the police force. He also asserted that a change in law is not solely the panacea to remedy the worsening status of corruption in the society.
This statement of Lamberto was supported by Lester Cunado, also a 3rd year law student and an incumbent president of a university-wide organization in UST, Batas Tomasino, he also believes that the status quo of the performance of our PNP will be in a better state if only people would still trust to policemen’s ability to secure the public safety. with reports from Bianca de Mesa
The concept of PNP as pahingi ng pera started during the hype of the massive corruption of the manila police in streets; they have been labeled as the “Kotong cops” of the Philippines.
Kotong is a form of forced bribery commonly known as “lagay.” In plain sight, “kotong” is actually stealing. “Pulis Patola” is a term coined as form of ridicule for those who accept briberies from authorities.
The PNP has been receiving a lot of negative criticism and which many believe to be self-imposed.
Amid the ridicule : “Kayo ang aming boss”
“We in the police department do not let negative issues affect our jobs in protecting the citizens,” said Manila Police District (MPD) Explosive and Ordinance Division Police in Chief Oliver Sotto Navales. According to the officer, highlighting failed operations of policemen is to be expected from the media.
“(For the media) If there is good news, it is not good news but if there is bad news then it’s good news,” he added.
Policemen believe that the media are able to detect errors easily and will magnify them at all costs. Navales insisted that the department does not tolerate any faulty actions coming from their members despite the recent reports on police torture in station 2 in Tondo, Manila, where a suspected snatcher was tortured to death.
But in regards with the actions of the SWAT in the Quirino Grandstand hostage Drama, Navales took a deep breath and explained that the police just wanted to resolve the situation.
“The police wanted nothing more than to save the lives of the hostages and capture the suspect, who, unfortunately, was also a policeman,” he said.
According to Maj. Navales, their public negative image did not shake them, but has in fact, made them stronger and more determined to improve.
Maximano Ricafort, brother of the former (MPD) Explosive and Ordinance Division Police in Chief Major Ricafort, claimed that in his brother’s time of office, he had been also staying in the MPD office and he had been good friends with the police, gaining access to the issues in the department.
He believes that corruption had long entered the PNP and remains doubtful if it can still be removed from the system.
He said that the PNP’s system starts with corruption, there is a quota in accepting police every year, therefore, there are limited slots which the aspiring trainees pay for.
“Those who are really qualified loose their chance because of this corrupted system. Even in our time, this already existed, but it was around 50k back then, now I heard it has reached double.” Maximano said.
SPOTLIGHT: Does the PNP still have the trust of the majority?
An independent market research study conducted by The Digital Edge in behalf of Reader’s Digest was held in the Philippines last year. It aims to determine the trust level people have in the given list of 40 professions. The survey showed that the level trust people have on our police officers is not as high compared to our army officials and media, only getting a mean score of 4.75 out of the perfect mean score of 10 percent.
Collective insights from the masses
According to Danny Depas, 37 years-old taxi driver, thoughts that appear in his mind once he hears the “police” are fear, irritation, and discomfort.
He has been driver for almost 16 years. He saw the ups and downs of the practices of street police over the years.
For him the leader or the president is the key in minimizing the abusive policemen.
“If the president does a clean job, then there is no reason for the lower officials to do stupid things, especially the police officers,” he said
He hated the Arroyo’s administration the most; this is the time that he had encountered a lot of significant harassment coming from the police.
“Cory’s and Ramos’ administration was good, the police were “good” back then, the best was in Erap’s administration, street policeman is not the stick to us drivers, but the worst is in Arroyo’s administration.” He said.
Meanwhile, Lamberto Santos III, a 3rd year law student from the University of Santo Tomas believes that if our policemen are being paid justly, then, there would be no corruption among the police force. He also asserted that a change in law is not solely the panacea to remedy the worsening status of corruption in the society.
This statement of Lamberto was supported by Lester Cunado, also a 3rd year law student and an incumbent president of a university-wide organization in UST, Batas Tomasino, he also believes that the status quo of the performance of our PNP will be in a better state if only people would still trust to policemen’s ability to secure the public safety. with reports from Bianca de Mesa
0 comments:
Post a Comment