Are our policemen naive – or cowardly?

The investigation into what went wrong at ULTRA may now go on forever, because our senators, led by Miriam Defensor Santiago, have leaped into the picture by insisting on an inquiry into the horrible stampede in their Uppity Chamber . . . I mean Upper Chamber.

They are thus assured of full television coverage, since, if ABS-CBN doesn’t faithfully focus its TV cameras on the . . . is it Inquisition? you can bet your bottom peso GMA-7 will do it. Rivalry? Of course not: it’s coverage . . . and, uh, journalism.

Surely, negligence and stupidity entered into the picture. The ABS-CBN top management, the way I see it, was unaware – as most top executives are – of the clumsy manner in which their security people and underlings were handling the potential powderkeg of a situation. After an unfortunate event, in the post-mortem blamecasting, everybody – including the kibitzers – are always smarter than the decision-makers.

However, it doesn’t take a smart-ass to analyze the lack of awareness on the part of those directly in charge of crowd control and the management of the affair. "Wowowee" is such a popular gameshow-cum-giveaway program that the accumulation of more than 50,000 "fighting" to get into the compound ought to have been anticipated. There were two entrances supposed to be "opened" to accommodate the crowd – the St. Martin main entrance for the expected 9,000 who would form part of the audience inside the sport arena, while the rest would watch at the grandstand along the tracks where two giant TV screens were to be mounted.

There is one constant known to anyone who’s utilized that venue: the ULTRA can only accommodate an estimated 17,000 persons inside and outside.

What might have given the organizers and security personnel early warning about the mob which was to swamp the scheduled First Anniversary celebration of that super-popular variety show of Willie Revillame were that so many people began arriving from as far away as Quezon province, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Cavite. Many of them got there as early as Thursday (some say even Monday), setting up "camp" determined to be the first, clogging St. Martin and Capt. Henry Javier streets and causing garbage to pile up. There were no toilets, so the place began to reek of urine and defecation-smelly garbage. Many of those who flocked from afar to ULTRA had apparently made an "excursion" of it, pooling their meager resources to hire vehicles to transport them, then camping at the entrance for days to make certain they got first crack at the tickets to be distributed. It was "important" for them to be at the first ranks of the expected queue since the first to enter, they had heard, would be given special perks.

Aside from the big prizes like two passenger jeepneys, two taxis, two tricycles, two one million peso cash prices, two house and lot packages, they had been "told" that P1.2 million would be raffled off during the 12 scheduled commercial breaks on the ANC/TFC/ABS-CBN channels. Five people, it was said, would be picked from the audience every commercial break, or a total of 60 lucky people, each one ostensibly getting to win P20,000. What a bonanza for any "poor" participant, a lucky fortune for anyone counted as kapus palad.

As the crowd began to shove and push, some men allegedly clambered onto the roof of the waiting shed, eager to "jump ahead" of the rest. ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol last night averred that the collapse of the roof of this shed on the heads of the people trapped or engaged in the shoving and pushing underneath didn’t cause fatal or even serious injuries, but when the roof falls down on you, with several husky fellows crushing it down as well, wouldn’t anyone below get more than a headache? Hundreds were injured under that collapse. The victims were mostly elderly and frail, as might be expected. It was a terrible, altogether selfish stampede – and in its tragic aftermath there were too many tears and broken bodies. The lucky ones were those who survived to complain that they had lost their wallets and cellphones to pickpockets and thieves, who were busy working the crowd and taking advantage of the confusion.

Altogether it was a bloody mess. May such a thing never happen again! But, alas, this is the land of the careless, the sloppy, and the unheeding.

We are also afflicted with chronic "amnesia." After a tragedy we soon forget the pledges of reform and change made – and hereby are cursed with the next tragedy.

* * *

I got a phone call yesterday, direct from Lingig, Surigao del Sur, saying that Philippine National Police Director General Arturo C. Lomibao, disgusted that the PNP officers had permitted a group of New People’s Army cadres to rampage through the municipality last Sunday afternoon, snatch the Mayor (Jimmy Luna) from his residence, then take the Police Station itself by surprise, carting off eleven M-16 armalites, five shotguns and one Winchester shotgun, ordered the relief of the Provincial Director of Surigao del Sur and the entire Lingig police force.

There they go again! The PNP surrendered without a fight, claiming lamely they had been fooled by the fact that the NPA insurgents had been attired in military uniforms and accompanied by Mayor Luna (whom they did not "realize" was himself a hostage).

The trouble is that the NPA has performed such a caper again and again, without the Police waking up to their repetitious tactic. Always, the raiders are in military camouflage. And our sleepy policemen always get caught off-guard by this primitive dodge.

Lingig is a town wedged into the boundary of Davao Oriental and Surigao del Sur, about 250 km southwest from Butuan City, our correspondent there, Ben Serrano, points out in the main story appearing today. What he reported is significant: The NPA raiders went all over town "visiting" the residences and places frequented by the town’s 15 policemen with intent to grab their individual firearms, before proceeding to the Police Station, where they finally seized the weapons stored in its armory, and the sidearms held by the cops they found napping. Imagine that: Nobody alerted the PNP that the NPAs were on a "guided tour" of the municipality, aboard the Mayor’s own car and two vans, with the Mayor himself as their reluctant tour guide.

This modus operandi has been successfully implemented by the Communist guerrillas, time and again, in their drive to bolster their item inventory of weapons.

Once more the Army, i.e. elements of the 36th Infantry Battalion, had to come in to pursue the gleefully departing rebels. It’s always described as "hot pursuit."

As for General Lomibao who sped to the scene – at least he’s not a deskbound National Police Chief – he was hot under the collar all day. But what can a PNP chief do? He doesn’t have the authority to send any PNP slackers to the firing squad (if anyone got punished in a painful way, for losing firearms to the rebels, probably the PNP would be more energetic and put up a fight).

Moreover, everybody in the force knows Lomibao is retiring in May this year. There goes his kamandag – his ability to impose harsh discipline!

If La Presidenta is wise, she’ll extend the Police Chief’s tenure by two years or more, then order him to go in there and kick ass. But she won’t. As a "transactional President" she probably wants to please everybody, including the PNP generals eagerly in line to get promoted to Lomibao’s post, that of being Top Policeman. The aspirants are so hungry for that extra "star" that they’re actually slavering at the mouth, and pulling strings to hasten Art’s departure, if they possibly can.

What a way to conduct a law and order campaign: Treat the National Police Director General like a "casual", soon to be terminated.

* * *

As for the insolent New People’s Army, their Agaw Armas campaign is gaining ground. If you’ll notice, they’re getting most of their weapons from the Police, or from raids on Security Agencies.

Aside from the three most-recently publicized raids, all of them on unwary PNP stations in Luzon and Mindanao, here’s a catalogue of their recent depredations:

On January 6, some 100 fully-armed NPAs raided the Albuera Municipal Police Station in Leyte, taking advantage of an electric power failure. The "Communist Terrorists" (as our intelligence routinely calls the NPAs, using the acronym "CTs") disarmed the six policemen on duty and carted away 19 M-16 rifles, a 9 mm and a caliber .40 pistol, 9 caliber 38 revolvers and an ICOM base radio.

On January 5, just a day earlier, the NPAs had disarmed two security guards of the MINSAS, at the Supermarket Store in Barangay Poblacion, Baganga. They carted away one cal. 30 carbine and one cal. 38 revolver.

In Laguna last December 31, the Philippine National Oil Company office at Silangan, along SLEX southbound in Calamba City (sanamagan, the hometown of Jose Rizal) was raided by 15 armed men wearing Police SWAT uniforms, aboard a Pajero van. The "robbers" got away with P3.3 million plus nine 9mm pistols, one M-16, and ten Motorola handheld radios.

On the same day, in Pasay City, ten armed men (six of them in black jackets with SWAT markings behind, and four in actual PNP uniforms) barged into the Davao Security and Investigation Agency office at 2605 Galvez st., corner Park Avenue, and got 35 M-16 rifles, 13 shotguns, two cal. 38 revolvers, ten armored vests and ten helmets.

Also on December 31, seven NPAs disarmed guards of the Specialist Security Agency at the Langa-og Banana Growers Corp. The raiders carted away two shotguns, one M-16 rifle, and one cal. 38 revolver.

If our policemen are now going to acquire more revolvers and firearms – as promised by President GMA at their 15th Anniversary rites – they had better make sure these new weapons won’t fall, as usual, into the hands of the NPA. Susmariosep. We’re the ones "arming" the enemy, knowing that the guns we lose to those ruthless insurgents will one day be used against us.

In the light of the discouraging statistics, how can our government say it’s winning the battle against insurgency? It’s time to wake up.

Once more with feeling, let’s recall the Four F’s of the late, great Ramon Magsay-say by which he crushed the NPA’s predecessors, the Communist Huks or HMB. Magsaysay told the Army and Philippine Constabulary: "Find ’em, Fool ’em, Fight ’em – Finish ’em!"

The PNP Director General knows the Four F’s well himself. As the PC officer whose determined chase of the dreaded Communist Chieftain, the almost legendary Commander Dante resulted in the capture of that insurgent – now peacefully a farmer after he served his term in prison – Art Lomibao ought to know how the fight should be conducted.

But he can’t prosecute such a fight if our present PNP are cowards, or slackers. What they need is real backbone, not deceptively rosy press releases.