Honeymoon’s definitely over for Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa. Half a year of heady PR, show-and-tell, and media circus came crashing down as the reality of the persistent rot at the core of the Philippine police came to the fore in recent months. Revelations of corruption and institutionalised racketeering and extortion perpetrated within the ranks of the police made headline news.
The kidnapping and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo by Filipino police officers within the grounds of the PNP served as a stark reminder of just how entrenched in criminality the PNP is. Despite dela Rosa spending the better part of the last six months on a PR campaign to improve the image of the force, the dark substance beneath the glitz and gloss painted by Bato before the cameras remains.
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Unfortunately, certain habits dela Rosa had become comfy with die hard. Recent disclosure of another incident against South Koreans, this time involving extortion of Php300,000 off three businessmen allegedly perpetrated by seven police officers was dealt with, again, by media circus. The Inquirer reported dela Rosa’s response to the incident as a “public dressing down” featuring the police chief making threats to “execute” the seven officers “by firing squad”. There was also a public spectacle organised for the cameras where the men were made to do pushups while Bato shouted out homilies at them.
People are no longer impressed.
These stunts are good fodder for the media, but are bad form for what is essentially supposed to be disciplinary measures that should be routine internal management practices within the police force. The public cross-examination of the seven rogue cops was theatrical at best but does not provide any real insight into what real punitive action will be dealt them beyond the pushups and dismissals. Extortion and racketeering are criminal offences that attract severe penalties including imprisonment.
Thus, the important question to ask following these spectacles is whether criminal charges will be filed against these rogue police offiers.
Even President Rodrigo Duterte who bypassed dela Rosa to announce that anti-drug units within the PNP will be disbanded following the murder of Jee stopped short of any commitment to treat these as criminal cases, choosing instead to refer to Jee’s case, in that instance, as “something that has to be corrected severely.”
Results are the only true measures of achievement.
Reassignments and sackings are not enough. Criminal activity — even those perpetrated by the police — need to be treated as criminal cases. Will these rogue cops be charged, hauled to court, tried and, if found guilty, thrown in prison?
That remains to be seen.
In the meantime, it is high time that Filipinos learn to regard the media theatrics of Bato dela Rosa with a grain of salt. The police chief has a job to do. Making like an action hero — or Drama Queen — before the cameras is not part of the job.
[Photo courtesy DavaoToday.com.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Unfortunately, we cannot make the PNP , look impressive by Public Relations , alone. There are real criminals and bad guys within the ranks of the PNP.
PNP needs deep cleansing…its corruption has gone to the core , already. Aquino, Mar Roxas , Purisima and Leila de Lima , have aggravated the corruption in the PNP, in their terms; thru the drug dealing and corruption problems.
Unless, there are strict measures, to impose discipline. The PNP will remain, and deteriorate in its condition…
We have to bring back the Death Penalty…there is no other way to deter criminals, than the Death Penalty ! Firing Squads can discipline these bad guys in the PNP ! Firing Squads can also be applicable to officials, who commit plunder !
i think ex president Ferdinand Marcos is tougher than president Duterte. during his time (Marcos) the pinoy communist is in the hiding in the mountains. now they’re fighting back to back trying hard top overthrow the Motherland. if this is during Marcos days, they’re all done, finished as we saw it before. isn’t it guys!
…..there’s so many cases to be done and still nothing has been accounted for. file after file after file and so on till soon just to be forgotten.
GRP I know this is not the proper section to post but I’m trying to look for “Contact us” in your page, so I will post here in your latest article. What can you say about this new exposé about rappler? Is it real or fake? http://www.thinkingpinoy.net/2017/02/spo4-pia-ranadas-rappler-constitution-failing-bankrupt.html
I’m not an “investigative journalist” so I will have to assume that Thinking Pinoy values his or her hard-earned reputation enough to ensure this article (which, it seems, he worked hard to research and write) actually holds water.
That said, how Rappler stays afloat has long been a mystery considering it evidently burns a lot of money to produce the volume of content it delivers and keep its hipster staff permanently employed and domiciled in a trendy office during office hours (not to mention maintain a satellite office in Jakarta at the same time).
After Ilda started a shift to the usual series of GRP articles as of late and then FallenAngel follows up with her’s, it’s an apt move that Mr. BenignO came up with this piece.
For the things that matter (and seemingly ignored matters considered unimportant) that correspond with what’s currently and relevantly needed attention at this time and hopefully this community can learn something from, I should say welcome back Mr. BenignO! It’s about time! Really!
Thanks! 🙂
That was very well put benign0. I commented here because I stumbled on one of your old articles about Rappler. Things are much more interesting today as more people began to realize what Rappler is up to.
Who gets the bird, the hunter or the dog.