EDITORIAL - Trigger-happy

Carjacking is a serious problem and the public expects the Philippine National Police to be on the job. Law enforcement, however, does not include the license to fire guns at will. A lethal weapon cannot be used indiscriminately, especially in crowded places such as Metro Manila where it is easy to confuse identities.

That was what happened in the case of Randolf Clarito, a business executive who was shot and wounded early yesterday after his car was mistaken for another with carjackers on board in Pasig City. Clarito was in his Toyota Vios and had driven past a police checkpoint on C-5 road when members of the Traffic Management Group opened fire on his car. Though wounded, Clarito managed to drive to a hospital for treatment.

The TMG members explained that they were chasing several men in a stolen Toyota Altis who were suspects in several carjacking incidents last Tuesday in Quezon City. The Altis is silver, the color of Clarito’s car; the Altis was later found abandoned. The TMG claimed Clarito had ignored a signal to pull over at the checkpoint — a story he denied.

The only thing good in this story is that the seven TMG members were immediately relieved and an investigation is underway. Clarito was lucky to have survived; late last year TMG agents killed four suspected carjackers in Ortigas Center also in Pasig in what the cops said was a shootout. The cops appeared to have hard evidence for carjacking against at least two of those killed, but two others could have been innocent, as their relatives claimed, and were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Filipinos sick of lawlessness and frustrated with the inefficient criminal justice system are often willing to look the other way when crime suspects, especially the notorious ones, are gunned down. The public appreciates the zeal of the PNP in trying to stamp out the scourge of carjacking. There is always the chance, however, that innocent lives could get caught in the crossfire. With lives at stake, law enforcers cannot afford to be trigger-happy.