Police corruption

The appointment this week of Panfilo Lacson, a tough police general known for his crime-busting exploits and colorful plaid Lacoste shirts, did not surprise many. After all, he has been in the shadow of President Joseph Estrada as a close ally from way back.

Lacson’s fiery speech to wipe out police corruption when he took over the National Police post Tuesday also did not surprise many. All past police chiefs had delivered the same venom-laden threat on crimes within the police establishment and look where the police force is now. It is still one of the most hated and most notoriously corrupt forces one can find anywhere.

Consider this: Philippine policemen have been linked to almost all imaginable crimes they are supposed to combat –– kidnapping, drug trafficking, mulcting, corruption, rape, murder, bank robberies, what have you. Drivers don’t look for but avoid traffic policemen who are derided as crocodiles in uniform who devour grease money like the reptiles. In recent years, many relatives of kidnapping victims have avoided going to the police after a victim was freed after paying ransom and saw his captors, who turned out to be a police officer, in a police headquarters where he and his family went to provide details of the abduction.

Police image in the Philippines is so dented it has become the butt of jokes. One goes that Filipino policemen are the fastest in the world in terms of responding to crimes. Japanese policemen are said to be able to respond to a contingency call in about four seconds. American policemen could be at the scene of a crime after a call a few seconds later than the Japanese. But Filipino cops could be at the scene of the crime in no time at all being the perpetrators.

One recent event, though, took the cake. A chief of the National Police, Roberto Lastimoso, was accused by his subordinates of coddling drug traffickers by pressuring lawmen to release them. Lastimoso denied the charges but was charged and eventually suspended by government prosecutors.

The scandal sullied the image of the Philippine police like excrement on tissue paper.

Amid these, let’s hear out Lacson’s vow. Addressing corrupt policemen, Lacson said: “We shall not only punish you in the gut. We shall also scorch the earth beneath you.” Lacson said he would not mind if the 117,000-member police force is reduced to half to rid it of “hoodlums in uniform.”

Fine expletives but many yawned. Others, however, say Lacson may be the right man in the right time. Police officers say he could use his clout with Estrada to make sweeping reforms in the police force without fear. Lacson, 51, also had a string of impressive accomplishments and background. He seems not to mind fighting bigshots. He was one of those who openly accused Lastimoso of coddling drug traffickers. He was a graduate of the prestigious Philippine Military Academy and is credited for wiping out notorious kidnapping syndicates last year. He worked as leader of a task force under an anti-crime commission headed by Estrada when he was still vice president.

In 1995, Lacson was forced to resign after he and two other police officers were implicated in the illegal execution of 11 suspected bank robbers. He was eventually cleared by a court and plucked from oblivion by Estrada last year and appointed as head of a presidential commission against organized crimes.

Will the Philippine police finally see the light under Lacson? That remains to be seen, but many fear two things. First is Lacson could fail. Second, he could succeed in ridding the Philippine police of criminals but the country could be left with only less than a hundred cops. Both ways, criminals would jump in joy.