EDITORIAL - How high does it go?

A Chinese and a Korean are the latest individuals to complain of being victimized by members of the Philippine National Police. Several police officers have been arrested, even as President Aquino expressed continued trust in his former close-in security aide, PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima.

The President may have defended the performance of his favorite cop, but investigators must pursue the possible involvement of PNP officials with higher ranks than the suspects so far apprehended for “hulidap” or shakedown operations.

Cops do not rise through the ranks through cluelessness; they tend to be a suspicious bunch. That brazen “hulidap” operation along EDSA, fortuitously recorded on video by a passerby and uploaded on the Internet, was no simple heist. The victims must have been known to the 10-man team mostly from the Quezon City Police Department, and that kind of operation requires planning. If higher-ups did not give some form of blessing to the operation, they can still be made to answer for intelligence failure within the command.

“Hulidap” or police shakedowns are hardly new. The most common targets are genuine criminals, who escape arrest by paying off the arresting officers. Such police activities allow the criminals to continue their operations. The shakedowns then become indirect forms of protection rackets. How high up does the sharing of dirty money go? Authorities must find out.

Cash amounting to P2.1 million, which the police suspects reportedly seized from the victims in the EDSA heist, is still missing. Investigators may want to persuade some of the arrested cops to tell the truth and fill in the missing pieces. The complete picture will provide interesting insights into the rot in the PNP.