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IN a previous column written almost a couple of months ago, I warned
readers about a rogue mobile patrol unit operating and victimizing
people, usually young urban professionals and students in the Vito
Cruz area. I called Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim’s attention to these
corrupt cops’ “hulidap” operations, who conduct illegal
checkpoints and scare hapless motorists into giving money. I’ve
been asked to call Mayor Lim’s attention by a number of people who
were victimized by this group, including a couple of students, a
journalist from another paper, and a Senate staff member. Mayor Lim
is my neighbor at my Manila residence and a cofounder of the
Citizens DrugWatch Foundation. We all know his sterling track record
as a Manila policeman, way back when the force was really suited to
its title as Manila’s finest.
I was surprised that after a couple of months
the same policemen I named in the column surfaced in the news again,
this time victimizing a young chef who just happened to be visiting
his cousin in the Vito Cruz or Pablo Ocampo district. They struck
again, I thought. Were they ever investigated? Did they ever stop
their fleecing operations? Or do these corrupt cops operate with the
blessing of their superiors?
Before they were exposed in the news, the
shameful incident, I found out, was already all over the Internet.
It took a viral e-mail to lift the cloak of secrecy over these
policemen’s misconduct and exact some measure of accountability.
The policemen—Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza,
Insp. Nelson Lagasca, SPO1 Nestor David, PO3 Wilson Gavino and PO2
Roderick Lopena—were charged last week with robbery,
robbery-extortion, grave threats and physical injuries. Shaming
these policemen through the news and through viral emails is no
substitute for true accountability. I share in the utter disgust of
the victims of these policemen who have no business wearing
uniforms. These are not the friendly ‘Mamang Pulis’ Chief PNP
Avelino Razon could be proud. If these are the Mamang Pulis, then
citizens have every reason to be scared of policemen.
If you haven’t read it by now this is the
account of the victim, young chef Christian Kalaw. He went to the
condo of his cousin to return a laptop he borrowed. His cousin lived
at a condo in Vito Cruz. He parked, went up to return the laptop,
and when he got back, the policemen were already inspecting his car,
which they claimed was illegally parked. The policemen asked him to
open his trunk. Chris asked for a warrant.
The policemen opened the trunk anyway and
searched the car’s interior. They found the plastic end of some
spark plugs in the toolbox and one of the cops claimed it was drug
paraphernalia. The same cop allegedly planted used plastic sachets
of shabu and started shouting, “Drugs!”
Instead of taking Christian to the precinct,
they took him to a nearby ATM and asked him to withdraw all his
money in the account, “or else”. But Christian said he only used
his ATM to draw his salary from the Mandarin Hotel and does not keep
his money there. Christian insisted on a drug test. He told the
policemen that if he were indeed a drug user he would not have been
able to get clearance certificates from the PNP, the NBI, barangay
and a medical clearance, which were all required before he could
start work as a chef at the Mandarin hotel.
Confident he would be cleared through a drug
test, he went with the policemen to submit himself to one. He was
taken instead to the parking lot of the Ospital ng Maynila, where he
was beaten up and forced at gunpoint to swallow shabu so he would
test positive for drugs. “Now we’ll see if you are still
negative of shabu!” the policemen said laughing.
Christian was then brought to the precinct, the
District Mobile Patrol Unit office where Lagas- ca and Mendoza
demanded P200,000 from him in exchange for his release without
charges. Christian spent the night in jail and was only released the
day after when his friend managed to produce P20,000 for the
policemen.
The five policemen involved in this despicable
incident (and I bet many other similar incidents) were reportedly
transferred to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and
Zamboanga City, according to Supt. Eleazar Matta of the MPD General
Assignment Section.
But why the transfer before the case could be
resolved? Why were they not suspended to begin with? And why is it
that corrupt cops are always shipped out to Mindanao and not taken
off the force? Mindanao provinces deserve honest and efficient cops
like any other province or city in the Philippines, and a corrupt
cop will be corrupt anywhere you assign him.
Chief PNP Razon is always talking about police
modernization and more budget for the policemen so they can do their
jobs better. But clean your ranks first of hoodlums and crooks. Your
budget comes from the people, from taxpayers’ money, taxpayers
like Christian Kalaw. Before Congress increases the police budget,
there must be increased police accountability in order to enhance
public safety.
ernestboyherrera@yahoo.com
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