20 years after EDSA: We need new discipline!

This month of February, we will be celebrating the 20 years of EDSA or the People Power Revolt where an angry Filipino people, sick and tired of the ruling conjugal Marcos dictatorship, decided that enough was enough and threw out the Marcos family that most of us thought had made Malacañang their permanent residence and family estate!

While those dark days are gone, a President and 24 senators and a Congress that rules this land as if politicians owned it have since been replaced 20 years now gone with one-man rule. The problem with our current politicians today is that they never learned from the lessons of our dark political history. In those days, because of one-man rule we didn’t have any political gridlock, but then the political faces never changed because the Marcoses wrongly believed that they would live forever and ever.

Again, this reminds me of "Handel’s Messiah," the piece which was played at the Quirino Grandstand during the last time President Ferdinand E. Marcos officially took his oath of office (I say officially because the oath of office he took at the balcony in Malacañang, while the people were in EDSA, wasn’t considered official) where its lyrics sang, "And he shall live forever and ever… and he shall live forever and ever!"

Well, Da Apo didn’t live long after his humiliating exile and he most probably thought that he should have been a strongman like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and maybe the Marcoses would have stayed in power. Instead, they brought this nation from second only to Japan to the bottom of the pit! In hindsight, if only someone within the Marcos Regime told the real Macoy that the people were no longer happy with his rule… he could still have reversed his course. But then, that’s hindsight and it’s too late for regrets.

But those who still remember the old days when Martial Law was declared, will never forget the discipline that Filipinos first tasted since the Japanese occupation. It was then that the Pinoy realized that finally, the military meant business and if you did not toe the line, off you went to the stockade!

One story I will never forget is that legendary story (I say that this is a legend because we only heard this through the grapevine with no means of verification) about then radio broadcaster Ariel Ureta who was "invited" for questioning because he aired on his radio program, "Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, bisikleta ang kailangan!" which was a lampoon of the New Society’s slogan, "Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan!"

If there is anything that we have learned after 20 years of freedom from the Marcos dictatorship, it is that this nation sorely needs a new order where National Discipline should be a key factor. If Japan was able to recover from the ravages of World War II (a war which they started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor), including the only nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is because the Japanese are a disciplined people.

Today, Japan is still an economic power because of its people’s discipline and character. We, too, can be like them if we say we can do it and I dare say that the time has come for Filipinos to embrace National Discipline. All this starts with the rule of law… that’s if this nation is still considered a nation of laws and not of men. When you talk about the rule of law, everything points to the military or the police… that’s where national discipline should start.

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Last Monday was the 15th anniversary of the Philippine National Police (PNP) which was a carry-over of the Integrated National Police (INP) during the Marcos years. But was there really a reason for the PNP to celebrate? Truth to tell, they’re still so far away from being the professional policemen who are the first line of defense against criminality in this country.

For many years, I’ve had friends working in the police force and yes, nothing much has changed in the last 20 years. A lot of our policemen still believe that their uniform gives them the undue advantage of being "exempted" from our laws or ordinances. A couple of weeks ago, my good friend, Atty. Elie Espinoza, wrote in his column in SunStar about a policeman, SP02 Lamberto Hibaya, who was convicted by Municipal Trial Court Judge Wilfredo A. Dagatan of Mandaue City for not wearing a helmet while he was riding his motorcycle and for resisting arrest by a Mandaue City traffic enforcer.

Hibaya was sentenced a measly P300 fine and two months in jail for his arrogance. In truth, the judge gave him a very lenient sentence… it was as if Hibaya were just another erring motorist. No sir, SP02 Hibaya was a policeman like the majority of our policemen who believe that they are above the law! During my stint as chairman of the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management (CITOM), I saw this many times, a policeman in uniform riding his motorbike without a helmet, while the rest of us lesser mortals have to wear one for our own safety. I usually stopped such an erring cop and lectured him on his shameful behavior and arrogance in flaunting to the world that he could get away with it!

Last Tuesday, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested P02 Jaime de la Cruz for allegedly extorting money from the wife of a man arrested for drug pushing. A couple of weeks ago, the PNP in Metro Cebu raided a lot of sleazy bars… arresting bar girls on suspicions of prostitution. The police usually get a girl, ask her to dance and perform the sex act… then the raid is conducted. Now, you tell me is that fair? It is common knowledge that policemen get "freebies" from the neighborhood "prostie." For as long as the policeman doesn’t squeal on her, he gets free sex! I’m sure that sex isn’t the only thing that policemen get free of charge these days.

I’m glad that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) earmarked a P18-billion fund for the modernization of the PNP and all I can say is, it’s about time. Just one look at the police stations in Metro Cebu will give you an idea of how dilapidated the police stations have become, except for the Mabolo police station near SM City which was built, constructed and donated by the Aboitiz Group Foundation Inc. (AGFI). But the reality today is that the officers and men of the PNP don’t only need new buildings, equipment or police cars… they desperately need to embrace a new attitude… one of National Discipline where they all believe under the majesty of the Rule of Law. When that happens, then we’ll see a better nation ahead of us.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.