EDITORIAL - The police is getting ridiculous

As pragmatic people are wont to say, "if it ain't broke don't fix it." This admonition could not have been more timely than today in light of the reported plan of the Philippine National Police to investigate Joseph Estrada and Jejomar Binay over one lousy parade in Cebu.

As it turned out, front page photos in local newspapers of Estrada and Binay on a World War II vintage jeep mounted with a replica of a machine gun during a parade in Carmen town have reached the eyes of top police officials with too much time on their hands.

Snapping out of their lethargy, the police officials felt they have found another good excuse to win the good graces of their boss in the Palace by trying to harass the opposition. The matter should be investigated, and if warranted, they will be prosecuted, they chorused.

For God's sake, Estrada is a convicted plunderer and Binay is a pipsqueak with no following outside the Republic of Makati. The police should not make mountains out of molehills and make heroes out of strange characters.

Maybe Estrada and Binay violated some law on possession and display of gun replicas, but the police should at least shake their noggins and try to understand the true intent of the law, which is to prevent toy guns from being used in crimes.

But a replica of a machine gun mounted on a vintage WWII jeep used in a parade cannot be associated with the commission of a crime in any way. The police, if it must earn some respect, should get real against real crimes, not make a joke out of crime-fighting.

If the truth be told, the police already had the chance to get Binay if that is what they really want to do. But they chickened out when Binay barricaded himself in Fortress Makati and now they want to get him for joining a parade with a toy gun.

Not a few people find Estrada and Binay as among the most loathesome Filipinos of all time. But if the police presses on with this folly, they will only serve in reversing the feeling. Nothing could be a more obvious form of harassment than this one.

If some people want to give vent to their puerile martial daydreams, let them. Boys, after all, will always be boys. And one last word of caution to the police, a crackdown on this one will invite questions on why they are soft on AirSoft games which openly use gun replicas.