Bandits have gotten out of hand

There were two news items yesterday that reflected how peace and order in this country has deteriorated and how the authorities are at a loss on how to deal with the problem. The first was a headline story that quoted Philippine National Police Director General Hermogenes Ebdane as saying, "Don’t trust just any policeman; look instead for somebody whom you can trust." We supposed that he was referring to a policeman you can trust. Speaking for myself, I don’t personally know any policeman I can or cannot trust.

Now, if one is being held up in a street or being kidnapped at home, in church or in the office, how does one seek succor from the policeman he knows to be honest? The story went further to say, "Woe to the family of a kidnap victim who unwittingly reports the case to so-called kidnappers in uniform." Doesn’t all this make one reach the conclusion that bandits have successfully infiltrated the National Police Force? If this is the case, then, the very first problem that the PNP has is to clean its own force. How can it fight bandits if they are part and parcel of the police force. To successfully clean its ranks of the bad elements, the first thing that they will have to establish is to what rank have the bandits successfully infiltrated our police force?

The second depressing item was about the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Basilan. A statement attributed to Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon said he was all for the plan of the Alano family to set up a hotel and beach resort complex in the town of Malamawi and his suggestion was to employ the Abu Sayyaf bandits as the waiters, bartenders, life guards and diving instructors. Do you know of any tourist who will go to Basilan if they know that they are not only going to a tourist spot where many kidnapped foreigners are being held for ransom and the people who will be assigned to attend to their needs are not the respectable people in the area, but the bandits that any sane person will try to avoid contact with?

There was a time when the people who made the news were the national leaders in government, the arts and the professions. Today, things have changed. The national celebrities are movie stars, singers and athletes. Now, it seems that bandits are even upstaging entertainers.

Again, if Gen. Ebdane was quoted correctly, to be safe today you have to personally know a good policeman. Where you can find him in the event that bandits give you problems is another problem. The dividing line between a policeman and a bandit is certainly getting thin.