Pampanga lawmen warned: Don’t extort from truckers

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Trucks and other vehicles transporting agricultural products should not be flagged down by the police at permanent or mobile checkpoints unless they are reported stolen or violate traffic regulations such as overloading.

Senior Superintendent Keith Singian, Pampanga police director, issued this clarification yesterday in his bid to weed out kotong or mulcting cops from the provincial police force.

“Trucks transporting vegetables, meat, fish and other farm products must not be stopped at fixed or mobile checkpoints for whatever reason, except for flagrant violations of the law,” he said.

Singian cited nagging complaints from viajeros, dealers and traders of agricultural products that policemen manning checkpoints extort money from them.

Singian urged the businessmen to report mulcting cops to law enforcers stationed at the newly established cambilans or “police boxes” along major highways and roads in the province.

“This is in line with our program to eliminate opportunities for graft and corruption among cops stationed along highways and other roads traversed by vehicles transporting agricultural products,” he said.

Singian said weeding out kotong cops along thoroughfares would “eliminate delays in the transport of goods from farm to market.”

“It will also contribute to the country’s economic growth through a quicker delivery of goods and elimination of overhead expenses triggered by extortion activities of some cops, that add up to prices of goods in the market,” he added.

Singian issued a “stern warning” to policemen who persist in extorting money from transporters of agricultural goods, saying they face “disciplinary measures and eventual dismissal from the service.”

Singian recently ordered his men to “soften the brusque image of the police” by making sure they appear “neat in their prescribed uniform, with appropriate shoes and other paraphernalia, including headgear and firearms.”

“Other basic equipment such as gun belts and holsters, whistles tied to red-and-white lanyards, and night sticks are now obligatory. Gun belts and holsters must be at all times worn by personnel in administrative or office work and most especially those in the field and in operating units who are equipped with firearms to indicate their readiness for any eventuality,” he said.

He also reminded policemen that “whistle blowing” has remained an effective and safer means to deter crimes, especially when suspects have less fatal arms.

“To subdue law violators, night sticks or batons should be preferred since firing warning shots into the air poses danger to innocent civilians, unless (the policemen) are fired at,” he added.