The most pressing problems are still crime plus rebellion!

It’s true that most newspaper headlines are about moves to impeach Supreme Court justices, President GMA’s peregrinations, the Cha-cha vaudeville and its political fall-out, speculation about who will run for president next year (including whispers about La Gloria deciding to seek re-electionist glory instead of quitting), and other gossip.

At rock bottom, however, the Filipinos’ real concerns center on everyday crime (which threatens everybody, big or small) and rebellion which is also complexed with crimes such as murder (by bullet or bomb), kidnapping, arson, rape, torture and other acts of violence.

I had a heart-to-heart talk with the nation’s Police Chief, Police Director General Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr., the other night. We spent four hours going over the nation’s crime situation, as well as the PNP’s activities in combatting bombers and other terrorists, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Jemaah Islamiyah, the Abu Sayyaf and other insurgent or terrorist groups, the New People’s Army, and so forth.

He and his staffers handed over or subsequently sent to me a ton of statistics and data. I suggested to "Jun" Ebdane, however, that many kidnappings still go unreported – because the victims or their families don’t trust the police. This is still the challenge which must be faced and overcome by Ebdane, his officers, and cops.

* * *

We even talked about the 4,000 police officers and their families who were "burned" in three scams, most of them victimized by the terrible Pyramid Scam run by the beauteous Ms. Rosario Baladjay and the so-called Multinational Telecom Invetments Corp.

Baladjay is now under detention with her Multitel accused of having duped perhaps 500,000 investors of an alleged P20 to 25 billion. It remains to be seen whether there is enough evidence to convict her and her confederates.

What bothers me, I reminded the general, is that as many as 4,000 policemen (wow!), including star-rank police generals, had lost millions of pesos to that scam.

We’d heard of police officers who, their wives even more so, have been so enthusiastic about investing in the Multitel "fund" that they had mortgaged cars and homes to get more money to invest in the now-collapsed scheme.

Would their ruinous losses not tempt the policemen to recoup their money – or, at least get themselves out of the poorhouse, by resorting to criminal means, or kotong-kotong?

The answer to that question is, in the minds of many, pivotal to the already aggravated law and order problem.

Don’t you think so?

It’s amazing how many supposedly "smart" people, even geniuses and successful business leaders, almost ritually get taken in or bilked by such quick-money-making scams and embezzlement schemes. I guess P.T. Barnum was right when he quipped: "There’s one born every minute."

It would be cruel to say that there’s nothing more blinding than greed. Those who fell prey to the scam are hurting enough already, and don’t need that insult added to their already crushing burden of self-reproach and regret. Yet, what else can be said?

* * *

One of the cases I brought to the police chief’s attention in our discussions Tuesday night is that of the messenger of the famous restaurateur, Larry Cruz (Café Remedios, Bistro Lorenzo, Café Havana, etc.) whose company messenger had been held up and shot to death last week by two motorcycle-riding men in Malate.

The messenger, who had been in Larry’s employ for 30 years, was on his way to deposit the weekend sales and the payroll funds of Larry’s Malate restaurants (a few hundred thousands) when he was waylaid in a stretch just beyond the Remedios Circle where an almost empty skyscraper, which houses two banks on the ground floor, is located.

When the messenger resisted, he was simply gunned down. The robbers sped away with the loot. (When I checked with the police later, an officer claimed that the robbers hadn’t even gotten away with the loot. The bag, according to the cop investigating the incident, had been snatched when it fell by one of the bystanders – who ran off with it! Is this true? Sanamagan: What a country this is, if robbers can even be robbed of the bag they were trying to grab from a victim!)

It seems that the area where the crime was committed had been the scene of similar hold-ups in the past. One recent incident involved the heist of P1 million belonging to an Embassy. My sources, though, didn’t identify the Embassy. I’m told that the most notorious perpetrators in that area – a popular tourist and restaurant destination, mind you – is the so-called Harurot Gang (or gangs – there may be more than one group).

These are criminals riding motorbikes who zoom by pedestrians, and snatch bags and other valuables from their unsuspecting targets. They also pounce on persons getting in or out of their cars.

One of their recent victims asked me to advise other would-be "suckers" to be alert in that vicinity. "If you spot a motorbike with two men astride it on the street, hold on tight to your bag and cell phone," he said. "But don’t try to be a hero if they still make a grab for it – otherwise you’ll end up like that brave but foolish messenger."

Ebdane promised to make sure that there are more cops put on that stretch. Despite the popularity of the Malate area, owing to its many bars, eateries and entertainment outlets, it seems, there have been many complaints that there are hardly any policemen to be seen these days in that neighborhood.

Ebdane further said that he has already programmed the mobilization of more units of "motorcycle" or "mounted cops". He has ordered 100 so-called "dirt bikes" (200 cc) to increase the mobility for patrol and swift-response of "mounted" policemen and SWAT teams.

He added that the mounted cops would be patrolling in tandem; i.e., in batches of two. The first bikes would be farmed out to Metro Manila, particularly Manila, Makati, and Quezon City, and later deliveries would be assigned to Angeles City, Baguio, Cebu, Davao, General Santos and Zamboanga City. The bikes, designed for rugged terrain, were described as smaller, faster, and more manueverable – probably of the Honda variety.

* * *

Going back to our friend, Larry Cruz, he’s been victimized before.

Three years ago, Larry and his family returned from a weekend holiday and found their apartment in Malate ransacked. Intruders had broken in and made off with everything they thought had value.

Larry being a prominent Malate figure, no less than Manila Mayor Lito Atienza personally asked then Western Police District (WPD) Chief, Police General Avelino Razon, to handle the case. Despite the mayor’s injunction to the police, it appears they simply sat down on the case. No one was picked up for questioning, even though (Larry remarked afterwards) it looked like an "inside job" within that apartment building. So, Larry, fearing a repeat, moved out of the building.

It was not Ebdane who was PNP boss then, but PNP Director General Larry Mendoza, who’s now Secretary of Transportation and Communication (DOTC).

My question is: When somebody as well-known as Larry Cruz virtually gets ignored by the police, what hope does Joe Nobody or Juan de la Cruz or Kulasa, the sister of Gloria Labandera, have to get police action or protection when crime strikes?

In his previous life, Larry had not just been a pioneering and innovative restaurant developer, but a broadcast journalist, a national magazine editor, the Manila Bureau Chief of Asia Magazine, a publisher and an art collector. He was even Deputy Press Secretary during the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. Larry had jumped ship from journalism and government in 1980 to the private sector, when he established his first restaurant and became a legend in that business.

Will his missing payroll and restaurant earnings ever be recovered? Will the killers of his messenger ever be found? There were witnesses to the incident, I’m reliably informed. Has anybody "talked"?

* * *

"Jun" Ebdane says that, in connection with kidnappings for ransom (KFR), 25 incidents were reported between January and May 14, 2003. During the same period last year (2003), there had been 30 kidnapping incidents. This represents a 16.7 percent decrease, he averred.

"When compared to the year 2001, there is an even more significant drop of 34 percent," he maintained, "since there were 38 incidents for the same period."

The statistics were compiled by the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (PACER) unit, he noted. Luzon and Mindanao accounted for the most number of kidnappings, he further observed. Luzon had 23, Mindanao five, and Visayas had just one. (I reminded him, on the other hand, of the several kidnappings which were not reported, because the victims’ families had been warned by the gangsters not to tell the police, or themselves didn’t trust the police).

Of the 25 known cases, Ebdane pointed out, 11 have been solved, for a 44 percent crime-solution efficiency. Of the 44 kidnap victims, 32 have been released from captivity, two were rescued, two managed to escape, one was killed and six remain still captive in the hands of their abductors. Two of the victims are Japanese nationals, 12 are "Filipino-Chinese", and 29 are "Filipinos". (These are police descriptions, not mine.)

PACER says that the latest anti-KFR manhunts resulted in the arrest of 18 suspects, with six other suspected KFR gang members still at large.

"One disturbing trend has been the participation of police and military elements in kidnapping activities," the PACER report admitted. "Our operatives recently arrested, on separate occasions, at least two PMA (Philippine Military Academy) graduates, a regular NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) agent, and several military personnel as suspects in kidnapping cases. We have also arrested a number of former New People’s Army (NPA) members who have apparently turned to kidnapping activities."

While a number of known KFR syndicates, the PNP report underscores, "have already been dismantled", the police are aware "that other KFR groups have taken their place. The existing KFR groups are highly-organized, well-armed, and employ tactics aimed at evading the long arm of the law."

Gee whiz. I’m in awe of, as well as astonished at their old-fashioned turn of phrase – for instance, "the long arm of the law". I truly wish it were long enough, that arm, to grab the rats, hoodlums and bullies who kidnap and kill.