How politics can ‘kill’ policemen

It’s dismaying to learn that the budget of P148 million which the Philippine National Police got from Congress to buy 10,000 Beretta pistols as sidearms for our cops will now have to revert back to the national treasury. Why? Because the National Police Commission (Napolcom) stubbornly froze the purchase and has been questioning the validity of the procurement procedures.

The scuttlebutt, however, is that there is another arms supplier – with very strong connections that may lead all the way up to the Palace – who would like to supply locally-made 9 mm. pistols to the PNP. Sure, it sounds logical to give business, if at all possible, to local manufacturers. But it becomes wrong, even criminally wrong, when the specifications of the gun produced by this local supplier date back to the year 1911. Why, that’s even two years before US General John "Black Jack" Pershing launched his punitive expedition against Moro kidnappers in Jolo, and before the Americans even invented the .45 caliber pistol to knock down the original suicide krismen, the Moro Juramentados in Mindanao.

If we arm our policemen with this ancient type of pistol, wouldn’t this be putting them in harm’s way, when the criminals and insurgents they’re supposed to be fighting are bristling with state-of-the-art weaponry? "Buy Filipino" sounds great, but the PNP might just as well buy paltiks from the Cebuano manufacturers of Danao, which are, at least, "copied" from more modern lines.

How backward is the proposed pistol with 1911 specifications? To take just one example, the modern standard for pistols is to have, built-in, a double-safety feature such as a pin block (which prevents the pistol from firing when accidentally dropped). The local pistol does not have this feature. Our policemen might end up shooting themselves by accident, or hapless bystanders.

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In a way, the Napolcom Beretta "debacle" is somewhat like the silly on-going furor over American troops assisting our Armed Forces in going after the evil Abu Sayyaf. Here is the Beretta pistol which has won four public biddings held by the PNP and whose manufacturer has already supplied 35,000 pistols to our PNP officers and men without any complaints about its performance. Why is it suddenly unacceptable to the Napolcom? Incidentally, even if it is Italian-made, the Beretta is the standard pistol of most units of the United States Armed Forces, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and many countries in the North American Treaty Organization (NATO).

Even Israel’s security services chose the Beretta over their own Israeli-made pistol, the Jericho.

And there’s been no problem about price, either. The Beretta, which won in a transparent public bidding – which the Napolcom persists in questioning – is being supplied to the PNP for only about P15,000 per pistol (the local retail price is P38,000). I checked with a gun catalogue magazine and found listed there that the Oakland police department’s price for its procurement of the same type of Beretta was U$480, or, in pesos, P24,768 per pistol. By comparison, then, the PNP’s P15,000 tag is a bargain.

Perhaps the top brass of Napolcom should be invited to attend the wakes (burol) of ordinary cops slain in the line of duty or in misencounters because they didn’t pack, as the expression goes, "enough gun", or their guns jammed on them. Then they’ll realize – but this remains a big "if" – that equipping our policemen with a dependable weapon is literally a matter of life and death.

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We had high hopes for the Land Transportation Office (LTO) shaping up when our friend, former PNP Director General Bobby Lastimoso, recently took over as LTO chief with the rank of Asst. Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

The general public may not realize it, but the LTO is the government’s biggest revenue-generating agency after the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Bureau of Customs, and the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR).

It is also the agency that licenses all drivers nationwide and registers all motor vehicles. These are matters vital to public safety, including the life and limb of motorists, passengers and pedestrians on our roads and highways, as well as the health of the residents of cities and urban centers, such as Metro Manila, who are literally being suffocated by the pollution emitted by the many smoke-belching buses still plying our thoroughfares.

One of the complaints levelled by the rank and file personnel of the LTO itself during the incumbency of Lastimoso’s predecessor, former LTO chief, Gen. Edgardo Abenina, was that he had "militarized" the office by making it a dumping ground for his former comrades in the RAM (Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabayan), ex-PNP officers and members of the Young Officers Union (YOU). There were whispers about Abenina allegedly making "deals" involving his office and insurance firms as well as "accredited" drug testing centers.

This early, alas, with General Lastimoso having barely warmed his LTO seat, there is already "talk" going around that Lastimoso, in turn, has been bringing "too many" PNP personnel. Another piece of . . . well, "gossip" is that Lastimoso seldom shows up for work in his office, but spends much time in fine-dining restaurants and the eateries of first-class hotels. He has been spotted meeting in these places with individuals (the "gossip" goes) who have varied "interests" in the LTO.

A word to Bobby: Kindly nip these criticisms in the bud. And check up on what your subordinates are doing. Somebody who claimed to be one of his aides intimated to a businessman’s representative: "My boss will be happy with P2 million." This concerned a matter, it’s said, pending with the LTO.

One place General Lastimoso has allegedly been going to (according to its GROs, anyway) is a top-class "entertainment" club called Legend. This is the same place which used to be a favorite hang-out of a former Estrada Cabinet member, who created a scandal by gifting his favorite GROs with "ecstasy" pills. Is this the sort of place for a sober-sided government official to be seen frequenting?

To avoid such "loose talk" and "gossip", this may be the time for the general to drastically change his work-style and leisure habits. I was among the first to congratulate Bobby on his new post. At the same time, I advised him to beware: The LTO can be a temptation and a snake pit. What happens in the LTO Central Office on East Avenue (Quezon City) very quickly circulates, from tongue to tongue, and affects the morale – and work-styles – in all that agency’s city, regional and other outlets.

The "chief" is the one who sets the pace.

The crooks who have long infested the LTO’s bureaucracy have been keeping an eye eagerly on General Lastimoso – to see whether he means to institute "reforms", or whether they will enjoy "business as usual."

Don’t send them the wrong signals, General.

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The noisy debate, as well as all the fuss and bother over the arrival of US Special Forces and other American military units to participate in the Balikatan exercises with our Armed Forces, and train our Army in techniques of coping with the Abu Sayyaf, has reached ridiculous proportions. The Americans haven’t done a thing yet (except conduct demonstrations and buy local souvenirs), but already they’re being accused of wanting to take over the country. Sanamagan: why would anybody in his right mind want to take over this country? We’ve got trouble enough squabbling among ourselves. We don’t even need "terrorists" to disconcert us.

One argument being over-used is that the arrival of the Americans might spark an even "bigger war." In short, the Yanks might provoke more rebellion in Mindanao, and even clash with the Communist New People’s Army (NPA). In fact, the NPA’s most-publicized spokesman, "Ka Roger", has already boasted that the NPA will attack the Americans. Okay, Ka Roger and company, go ahead. You guys may get some of them, but don’t be surprised if they shoot back. Remember, the Taliban bragged the same way.

The fact is that we already have enough "war" going on in our rebellion-plagued land. The NPAs continue to rampage, ambushing military and PNP units and convoys, terrorizing the countryside, "collecting" so-called revolutionary taxes which cripple business and agriculture, burning the buses of the companies that refuse to pay, or are "late" in their payments. How the advent of American troops can make the NPA more ferocious is a conjecture that mystifies me. Aren’t they vicious enough already?

As for the possibility that US military cooperation with our Armed Forces might "widen" the rebellion in Mindanao – how can this happen? With or without the Americans, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the "resurrected" pro-Misuari Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are already in revolt. Even after we have crushed, if ever, the Abu Sayyaf, those other insurgents (who’re allied with the Abus, really) will remain threats.

Last Saturday, for instance, any Army patrol collided with a 40-man armed group in Basilan. The armed men fled after the brief encounter, in which there was an undetermined number of casualties (but no reported fatalities). It turned out that the Army patrol, in search of the elusive Abus, had clashed with a group from the MILF instead. And why not? The MILF rebels were roving around, fully-armed, while the government is supposed to be having "peace talks" with them.

The truth is that it’s impossible for our government forces – or the accompanying Americans – to tell the difference between an armed MILF or MNLF camp, or an Abu Sayyaf encampment. What has given the Abus the edge in the past months is that they can skip for "safety", with their captives, into MILF camps for rest and re-arming, then skip out again. Will the entry of the Americans "provoke" the MILF even more? They’re already in rebellion, anyway.

So what’s the Sturm und Drang and widespread Angst all about? We’ve got a full-scale rebellion on our hands, and this has been going on for years. If we can make "peace" with the Islamic rebels, fine. It escapes me how the Americans, though, can make them angrier at us than they already are.

So, give us a break. Let’s wait and see what really happens, not indulge in an orgy of dooms-day predictions. Our military, though some of its brass may huff and puff, actually welcomes the help of the Americans. And in Basilan, we need all the help we can get.

The sad part is that all the sound and fury being engendered is putting the lives of the Abu Sayyaf’s captives, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and Deborah Yap, more at risk – and making their rescue more difficult.