Send rogue cops to Spratlys

Over a thousand policemen are facing various charges before the PNP Internal Affairs Service. While they are suspended and kept in the holding pen, they get salaries and do nothing good for the country.

PNP Chief Bato dela Rosa has started to send some of the rogue cops for duty in the strife torn areas down south. But that’s not such a good idea because it shows how lowly we regard our Muslim brothers by sending them PNP’s scum. Also, the rotten eggs can create more problems.

I was thinking… why not send them to watch over our interests in the West Philippine Sea?  There is a stranded old Navy vessel we use to mark our territory that is manned by Marines. There is Kalayaan Island that is starting to be a community. There are other islands that must be populated to strengthen our claims.

Why not send those facing charges before the IAS and Napolcom involving corruption and abuse of power including EJKs out there? They will relieve the more disciplined Marines who can be used for other missions.

The idea makes sense. These rogue cops will be given the chance to do something useful for the country. They will earn their pay. The distance from civilization will protect innocent citizens from their deadly charms. The solitude may do them some good. It will give them time to think of their lives, how they are messing it up and how they can be redeemed.

Being assigned in the middle of the sea will also give them a chance to show some heroism if ever China challenges their presence forcefully. And if they die doing that, they would at least die as heroes rather than as criminals in uniform.

Then again, I wouldn’t discount the possibility that they could make the lonely assignment profitable by engaging in drug smuggling, picking up cargo of meth thrown overboard by passing ships. But this should be easier to manage than allowing them to roam free while their cases are investigated.

I floated the idea on social media. The reaction of netizens is mixed. Many agree enthusiastically… even suggesting we launch an online petition to President Duterte to make this happen. Others say the rogue cops are beyond redemption and authorities must just throw the book at them and let them rot in jail.

One thing I am sure of… the PNP needs a reset. It needed this reset years ago but presidents past and present seem afraid to do that. As a result, the rot has eaten up pretty much the entire organization.

 It is useless to spend money training young officers at the PNPA only to throw them in the cesspool that's the PNP. It is like cleaning up water used in a factory to drinkable quality as required by law only to discharge it to the murky Pasig River. We need to clean up the river first. We need to clean up the police force first.

Whatever PNP chiefs and presidents say about cleaning up the PNP, it cannot be accomplished as long as the rotten elements go unpunished. They have made a mockery of due process.

The Kian case shows how badly led the PNP is. The three policemen who carried out Kian’s murder were apparently following orders as they understood it. They seem to be under pressure to reach a kill quota in a deadly contest among PNP units.

As the senators pointed out in the hearing, even if Kian was a druggie, he shouldn’t have been mercilessly killed. Indeed President Duterte’s recent statements seem to indicate the PNP operatives have totally misunderstood his orders.

“Now, let us be clear on this…I said I would protect those who are doing their duty. I never promised to protect those who are supposedly engaged in doing their duty but committing a crime in the process – abuses. That cannot be done,” the President said.

“So, when you make an arrest, it must – you calibrate. If he’s just using a stick or a bat, then you immobilize him. Shoot him in the hand. If he’s using a gun or a bolo or a knife, and you think that your life is in danger, that will justify the policeman to kill you,” he added.

“What I reminded again the military and the police is that it should be in the performance of duty. That you are not allowed to kill a person who is kneeling down, begging for his life. That is murder.”

 Curiously, the reaction of General Bato is that the police is just carrying out the President’s order. “Our units are taking the cue from the words of the President that our anti-drug operations are unrelenting.”

 Is he now tossing the blame to the President? Did he misunderstand the President’s orders? Or did he understand the President’s orders too well?

 The other thing is… no one is being punished by the PNP. Indeed, some officers like the Caloocan police chief and the chief of the Northern Police District seem to be coddling their men who have obviously committed murder as defined by President Duterte. Unless someone gets seriously punished, the PNP’s credibility problem with the citizenry can only worsen.

 I am enough of a Christian to believe that we are all sinners and we are all capable of redemption. But it sometimes takes a drastic change in our lives to get us back to the right path. Solitude or the opportunity to meditate on our lives is a good way to see where we have gone wrong.

That’s why I think assigning the bad cops to guard our interests in the Spratlys is a good option. The fresh air and the solitude will provide them the opportunity for a good self examination and redemption.   

It is an idea worth a try. Let’s start by relieving the Marines in that stranded Navy vessel with a squad of the worst misfits in the IAS stable. Then maybe we can assign the more hopeful of them in Kalayaan.

Who knows? They may even welcome the change. It is nerve wracking to be a rogue cop who knows he is seen as a bad person sometimes even by his own family.

Sports medals

First of all, my congratulations to our athletes who have held our country’s honor high in the Southeast Asian games by winning those medals. Most of them did well despite the lack of support from their sports associations.

Indeed, it is time to shame our sports officials to let go and allow a new set of leaders to take over. They have used their positions long enough for personal profit. Tama na. Sobra na. We must do what we must to support our athletes and not milk them.

It is embarrassing to see that Singapore, a nation with a population that’s less than Metro Manila’s produced, as of the time I am writing this, three times more gold medals than our nation of over 100 million. Malaysia with less than three times our population is on top with almost six times as many gold medals as ours.

The Philippine Sports Commission is to blame, so is the National Olympic Committee. Most of all the various national sports associations (NSAs) are to blame. Private sector has tried to help but as what happened to Ricky Vargas, the NSAs ganged up on him. So MVP just concentrated on his favorite sports.

Sports development is important not just for the medals to be won in international competitions. Athletics can develop character that will make our young better citizens. But how can that happen when they see the bad example of their sports officials?

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