What guarantee that PNP truly will modernize this time?

The government bidding for vehicle license plates hopelessly has been messed up. No amount of justifying by the transportation department can convince observers of uprightness.

Six of the eight bidders were disqualified, mostly on flimsy grounds. Formal complaints have been filed. Like, only one bidder, unfortunately debarred, had complied with the latest US quality standards test as required in the specs. The only two qualified bidders had taken tests that no longer exist. Another complaint is that the lower of the two qualifiers is in a government blacklist for fraud. As well, it did not meet the requirement of having contracted in the past at least half of the present P3.8-billion supply deal.

Oddly though, the offer of that non-complying but favored bidder has reached the office of the Secretary of Transportation for approval. It was not the bids and awards committee that transmitted it there, but an undersecretary who is a long-time friend of the bidder.

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Five years ago Malacañang granted the Philippine National Police untold billions of pesos to modernize. But quite expectedly in an agency seen by seven in ten Filipinos to be the most corrupt, no equipment or facility or skill ever was enriched.

Only the generals at Camp Crame GHQ and their civilian superiors benefited — in huge kickbacks. Hundred-million-peso scams marked all major acquisitions: of dozens of defective armored personnel carriers, scores of unsuitable patrol and rescue boats and motors, hundreds of substandard assault rifles, and thousands of expired ammunition. Most prominent was the acquisition as brand-new of two used helicopters of then-first gentleman Mike Arroyo, abetted by the interior ministry.

Skimmed were wages of thousands of ghost personnel, food allowances of trainees, stipends for uniforms of recruits, gas budgets for patrol cars, even allocations for utility bills. Crates of rifles, marked “PNP Property,” were raided in half-a-dozen secret armories of the Ampatuan political dynasts, in 2010 after the infamous Maguindanao massacre. Even internal investigations of the anomalies became opportunities for extortion in eight digits of pesos.

The generals could not even discretely hide their loot. Two, on retirement in hometowns, built multi-story seaside resort-hotels with scenic elevators. One bought a bus fleet; another, an explosives factory. Six, with their wives, were caught in Moscow smuggling out millions of undeclared euros. Several more overspent heavily in running for local elective posts.

Today more billions are being thrown into a new round of PNP modernization. The budget department days ago released P2.86 billion for “police capability enhancement.” Malacañang is proposing a separate P71.95 billion for PNP operations, salaries, and purchases in 2014, on top of the interior department’s P9.54 billion. In the Senate is a bill for the PNP’s “continuing modernization,” aside from its annual appropriations.

What guarantee is there that the generals will do it right this time? Everyone realizes that the police direly needs training, special settings, and sophisticated gear for crime preventing and solving. But it’s common knowledge too: there has been no earth-shaking change in the PNP thinking to make the public trust them to be honest. Spokesmen cite the PNP’s latest major purchase -- 75,000 Glock pistols for P1.2 billion, P200 million less than budgeted -- as example of newfound honor. But credit for that must go equally to the press, which tightly guarded the bidding against blatant attempts at rigging, like in two past ones.

Other external factors make the PNP look good. The interior and budget departments and Congress are stricter in supervising, funding, and approving its expenditures. That’s likely why survey respondents are beginning to trust police performance.

But the PNP itself is still below par. Its biggest operations of late were criminal. One was the rubout in Quezon and Laguna of rival illegal numbers racketeers; another, the silencing of escaped robbery gang men. Apart from announcing discoveries of new terrorist bands, the PNP has not nabbed any culprit in the deadly bombings in Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato City, and Maguindanao. It has failed to curb the spate of hired-gun murders, mostly by motorcyclists riding tandem, in all major cities.

Apologists will say it’s a chicken-and-egg situation — that precisely the PNP needs multibillion-peso makeovers in order to become effective law enforcers. That may be true. But in the meantime, can the PNP please step out of the people’s way? Like, if citizens arm themselves since the cops are incapable of protecting them, can the generals make it easy for them, instead of tempting them with impractical rules to not license their firearms anymore? Can other agencies get off the back of people defending themselves against criminals? Like, shouldn’t taxes and duties be suspended momentarily for security gadgets like CCTVs, theft alarms and trackers?

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The Sigma Kappa Pi Foundation is donating copies of my book-compilation of exposés to the 123 state universities and colleges. Funded by a patriot who prefers anonymity, three copies of Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government are now being delivered — for the SUCs’ main, arts and sciences, and journalism libraries.

In letters to the SUC presidents, EKIT alumni president Jose Romarx Salas says the donations aim to “restore our people’s historical and institutional memory — to impart on them the core values of love of country and responsible citizenship.”

Exposés includes, among others, my series on the NBN-ZTE and Diwalwal-ZTE scams, the plunder by the armed forces comptroller, corruption in the construction of the NAIA-3, and the treasonous Joint Marine Seismic Understanding.

The book is available in all National Bookstore and Powerbooks branches nationwide.

The donation coincides with the EKIT’s 45th anniversary month.

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