Are we safe?

A dramatic picture appeared on Facebook and Twitter last Monday depicting four vehicles with armed men apparently taking someone from one of the cars along busy EDSA in broad daylight. It looks like a kidnap for ransom or a police operation or a little of both, one cannot really tell.

In this Orwellian age of CCTV cameras and smart phones, there are very few secrets left in this world. Here is how it was reported on philstar.com:

“A Twitter user uploaded a photo of the incident, which occurred along EDSA about 300 meters from Ortigas Ave. at around 2:40 p.m. on Monday. The photo shows four vehicles – two Toyota Fortuners, a Toyota van and a Honda City – at full stop. At least four men were shown pointing their guns at one of the Fortuners.”

Then again, it could have been a set-up precisely to catch social media attention and present a picture of a government unable to protect its citizens. Fake or not, the police still has no story on what that was all about... over three days after.

ABS-CBNNews.com reports that “police believe a viral photo of several men pointing guns at a vehicle along EDSA’s southbound lane was nothing less than an abduction.” On the other hand, philstar.com said the police was still investigating. That gives the impression it was not a police operation, not a legitimate one anyway, and that’s not good.

Since EDSA is a well monitored public highway, it is difficult to understand why the police can’t explain what that incident was about. The MMDA has invested a bundle on a state-of-the-art CCTV system whose output, I am told, is near broadcast quality. It was not a cloudy day so we can assume their CCTV system had a good look of the event and a clear view of car plates and even faces.

Indeed, we can invest in a lot of up-to-date technology. But unless we have the right people using these systems for the right reasons, we might as well be still in the carbon paper era of police officers typing away police reports on their battered typewriters. The failure of the police to tell us what was going on has given rise to speculations and fears on the state of public safety.

DILG Sec. Mar Roxas and PNP officials have been trumpeting a decline in our crime rate, which seems imaginary to the common citizen. Even if we grant that they do have numbers showing a decline in the crime rate, the feeling of personal insecurity remains high.

I am told that the local Filipino Chinese community had been feeling very insecure in recent weeks. Rumors of unreported kidnap for ransom cases are prevalent.

Sen. Chiz Escudero, who is friendly with the administration, expressed  alarm over what he described as the  growing  number of unreported kidnappings in the country, forcing  some students  from going to school  for at least two weeks.

“Ang dami kong kaibigan na nag-aaral sa iba’t ibang exclusive  schools na iyun ang nirereklamo. Ang dami daw nilang mga kilala na diumanoy  kinidnap yung kanilang anak, na diumanoy hiningan ng ganito,”  he said.

The Inquirer quoted the senator saying he also received reports of more kidnappings involving  Chinese-Filipinos, but these were not also reported to authorities supposedly because the ransom only involved  about  P500,000 to P5 million.

It isn’t just the rich Chinoys who feel insecure. At the bottom of our social scale, ordinary commuters riding jeepneys, buses and UVs are exposed daily to hold-up risk. A worker walking in an early dawn hour of Tuesday was reported by TV Patrol to have been killed and his bag containing his lunch and P100 taken from him.

It doesn’t help that a number of police officers have been involved in recent cases, either as perpetrators or victim. A senseless killing of teachers in Pangasinan involved a police officer too.

The quick solution of the Pastor contract killing case is a feather in the PNP’s cap. But the fact that the killer is a police officer is a blot on its reputation, even if the Quezon City police showed professionalism in arresting their fellow officer.

I hear people saying that at a time like this, they miss Ping Lacson. If only he was on top of DILG instead of the helpless Mar Roxas, the sense of personal insecurity of many citizens wouldn’t be as great.

Unless our authorities get a handle on a growing perception of rising criminality in our streets, even our economic growth could be stunted. Investors will think twice before coming over to do business in a country where their personal safety is at risk.

Of course it can be easily said that the danger posed by crime in our streets are no different from that in major world capitals. That’s true to a point, but it is also true that the police even in other Southeast Asian regional capitals are better trusted, better equipped and better trained to handle the challenge.

The Aquino administration can point out that they have taken the effort in the past four years to finally give every policeman a government-issued gun. There have also been some token effort to introduce modern digital technology to help the police safeguard peace and order and to solve criminal cases.

Mar Roxas last week asked Congress to budget for 80,000 more policemen to add to the 153,157 already in the force nationwide. That means a total budget of about P105 billion.

The PNP must, however, compete with other urgent needs for scarce government resources. It doesn’t help that even in the light of limited resources, the PNP chief prioritized spending millions of pesos on beautifying his official residence at Crame.

I recall Sen. Serge Osmeña telling me once that if he were to make the decision on how to spend resources for the police, he would prioritize bringing the PNP into the computer age. Every policeman must have not just a gun but a smart phone from which he can access a central police data base to report a crime or check on the background of a suspect.

A central law enforcement data base where the NBI and the PNP can share information is essential. Big Data is the name of the game these days in private business… and in modern police work as well.

All the data, including pictures and biometrics collected when people get police clearances should be in that data base. The personnel records of all police officers, NBI, military personnel should be in that data base as well.

The output of CCTVs of MMDA, LGUs and even private security agencies should be fed into that system too. A good data base can be helpful in preventing and solving crime.

My friends at IBM Philippines told me that the Boston Marathon bombing was solved fairly quickly because CCTV images were fed into a system which allowed experts in analytics to identify the suspects. The task required seemed like looking for a needle in a haystack, but Big Data analytics solved the case in a matter of days.

Everything that makes for good police work from old fashioned police sources to IT-savvy police officers are now required for effective crime fighting. Of course, nothing beats having a police force that is trusted by the citizenry… and we don’t have that.

Victims of crime always think twice before reporting to the police. There have been stories of car theft victims walking into the anti-car theft office and seeing the guy who forcibly took their cars wearing a police uniform.

The first mission of whoever is on top of the PNP, that’s you, General Purisima, is to make the distinction clear between the police and the criminals. Recent cases show this is a gray area. That police officer who moonlighted as a gun-for-hire in the Pastor murder case is not surprising.

Maybe it is time for P-Noy to take a closer look on how to make police work more effective. Unless this happens soon, the sense of personal insecurity among citizens from all social strata will only worsen.

In the meantime, I am still wondering what that EDSA photo showing armed men was all about.

Japanese ambassador

The farewell reception for Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe last Wednesday was very well attended despite the pouring rain. It goes to show how the Ambassador has been able to develop strong friendships during his tour of duty here.

Actually, Ambassador Urabe is a second generation diplomat from Japan. His father was also assigned here as ambassador some decades ago. The current Ambassador Urabe was first here as a child, studied at JASMS.

Our best wishes to Ambassador Urabe who now goes into retirement as he reached the mandatory retirement age of 60.

Daan

A reader sent this one:

Sabi ni Eli Soriano .... “DATING DAAN”.

Sabi ng I.N.C.....”TAMANG DAAN”.

Sabi ni Pres. Noynoy....“Tuwid na DAAN”

Si Janet Napoles....walang matanDAAN.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco