The good cop

Former military chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. was a good soldier. In the battlefields of Mindanao, he led the troops that neutralized some of the most notorious members of the Abu Sayyaf.

No pencil pusher, Esperon was tested in combat and good at military operations. And anyone who takes the time to pick his brains will see, in between his numerous jokes, the exceptional IQ that made him qualify in his youth for a scholarship in the Philippine Science High School.

The biggest criticism against Esperon, who is trying to reinvent himself in the civilian world following his retirement from the Armed Forces, is that while he was a good soldier, he was too good a soldier – someone who carried out his superior’s orders blindly.

The criticism may be unfounded, as Esperon has repeatedly insisted that he had nothing to do with allegations of helping rig the vote in Mindanao in the 2004 presidential race in favor of his commander-in-chief, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

But it is an accusation Esperon has yet to dispel completely, even as he parries fresh criticism over his role in the aborted signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Esperon’s “mistah” or fellow alumnus from the Philippine Military Academy, Avelino Razon, faced a similar problem. Throughout his career in the Philippine National Police Razon managed to keep his nose generally clean – not an easy feat in his organization – and to build a reputation for being a good and efficient police officer. He was media-savvy and had natural charm.

But in his one year as PNP chief, Razon became embroiled in human rights controversies related to toxic Philippine politics.

He clashed with his friends in media when his men rounded up, handcuffed and hauled off to Camp Crame journalists who refused to leave the Peninsula Manila during the bizarre takeover of the hotel by mutinous soldiers.

He denied any plan to kidnap or bring harm to Rodolfo Lozada Jr., insisting that he simply provided protection to the key witness in the ZTE deal while Lozada pondered whether he should testify before the Senate.

Razon has found vindication in the rejection by the Court of Appeals of a petition for a writ of amparo filed by Lozada’s wife and brother in connection with that case. But considering the tattered image of the CA these days, that ruling is taken with a grain of salt in the court of public opinion.

All the public officials implicated in the Lozada case have been careful to insulate the President from possible allegations of involvement. But in that kind of operation, Razon was pretty low in the totem pole to be acting on his own. At the very least, he must have sought guidance from an immediate superior. Having received the guidance, could he have said no?

When does a good soldier or a good cop reject a superior’s order? When does a good soldier or cop turn against his superior officer, for the greater public good? Even before he became the Armed Forces chief, Esperon was a loyal soldier, standing by his commander-in-chief amid coup threats, for better or worse.

In this administration, answering those questions will be like navigating a minefield for Razon’s replacement, Deputy Director General Jesus Verzosa.

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The new PNP chief’s first order to police commanders, according to reports, is to uphold human rights as well as the principle of presumption of innocence and stop “parading” suspects before the mass media.

If his order is followed, it would end a decades-old practice. Verzosa was reportedly a student activist in his freshman year at the University of the Philippines. Though he left UP soon after martial law was declared in 1972 and entered the PMA, his student activism might be seen as an early indication of his views on human rights.

Advocates of human rights welcome his order, and some see it as a deliberate step away from the human rights controversies that hounded his predecessor.

But in this country, crime victims and citizens who are enamored with Dirty Harry’s brand of law enforcement actually like to see suspects shamed in public. This is partly because with the country’s weak justice system, where captured suspects often escape or crooks are freed by corrupt justices or because of technicalities, public shaming can be the only punishment suspects will ever receive.

Even President Arroyo used to present suspects to the media. In one case at the National Bureau of Investigation, she even famously pointed to the whistle-blower as the suspect: Acsa Ramirez, the witness in a scam in the Land Bank of the Philippines. The embarrassed Ramirez had to wait several days before an apology for her public humiliation was proffered – not by the President but by the NBI chief.

That presidential gaffe should have put an end to the parade of suspects. It did not, which should give Verzosa an indication of the anti-crime tradition that he is up against.

If Verzosa’s order is followed, it will mark a major shift in the way cops regard crime suspects.

And if he manages to make the PNP follow his order and sustain compliance, it indicates a strong leader who can implement long-lasting reforms.

The reforms will have to include saying no to an unlawful order from a superior officer. Such orders are not rare in the PNP, where officers in the active service have been implicated in shakedowns, torture, summary executions and organized crimes including ransom kidnapping, bank robbery and the heist of bank armored vans.

The reforms will also have to include saying no to doing dirty work for partisan political purposes, as cops serving as politicians’ bodyguards are wont to do during elections.

Verzosa will have to lead by example in showing that a PNP member must be a good cop, but not too good a cop.