Confidence in the police

Members of the Philippine National Police will not have their guns sealed with tape this holiday season. PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa said he has enough trust in the discipline of the force he leads to abandon the traditional practice. Besides, proud police officers walking around with the muzzles of their guns taped makes for a sorry sight.

The practice of taping gun muzzles was a measure adopted many years ago to prevent police officers from discharging their guns during the New Year revelry. We have no measure to indicate to us the success of this practice. Each year, stray bullets continue to take casualties.

If we cannot trust our police officers to keep their firearms safe during the holidays, can we trust them with fighting crime? Taping gun muzzles seems a puny measure to stop the illegal discharge of firearms even as it demeans our police officers. Much of the illegal discharge of firearms that happens in the mad revelry with which we welcome the New Year appears attributable to unlicensed firearms and their irresponsible owners.

Whether they tape their gun muzzles or not, the police force will be closely observed by our citizens. Social media reports of guns being fired will surely be a more effective check on reckless gun owners. The police force, however, will be hard-pressed to demonstrate that it has transformed into the disciplined organization our citizens want it to be.

The PNP has been in the limelight in the past five months, during which a relentless campaign against the networks of illegal drugs was waged on orders of President Duterte. Scalawags in uniform have been ferreted out. Disciplinary action has been taken against policemen found positive for drug use. Ranking police officials suspected of protecting drug syndicates have been named and shamed. So much is being done to assure our citizens their police force is reliable and trustworthy.

The PNP, over the past five months, has been under pressure. The police was given tough goals to achieve in record time. The war on drugs as well as the looming threat of terrorist attacks have kept our policemen on their feet, putting in longer hours and working each waking day. The entire police force will be on high alert status through the holidays with leaves cancelled and shifts lengthened.

Our policemen, at the same time, are challenged to uphold the PNP’s prestige. So many deaths in the course of the antidrug effort are unfairly attributed to policemen. The Internal Affairs Service is pushed to work harder and investigate so many deaths attributed to “gang wars.”

Recently, the National Bureau of Investigation concluded that the killing of Mayor Rolando Espinosa by operatives of Region 8’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group was murder. The whole affair was politicized when the President admitted he had asked for the retention of Chief Supt. Marvin Marcos, who led the raid on the Leyte jail that resulted in the killing of Espinosa. However, we must take note of the President’s rationale for Marcos’ retention: to study his movements with the goal of destroying the drug apparatus. We must also remember that the President said he will not interfere in the legal proceedings against Marcos.

We do not have all the facts or the full story about what really happened in that jail. At any rate, we are sure the President’s main concern is to keep police morale high as the war on drugs kicks into high gear. He has assured all our policemen they have his full backing as they do the perilous and often thankless job of fighting criminality. Until all the facts are known, and unless all the facts prove otherwise, he must assume regularity in the way policemen do their work.

Hopefully, the public will maintain the same attitude. We must assume the PNP is a disciplined and professional organization constantly conscious of its mission to serve the people.

Except for a few scalawags here and there, the PNP has gone a long way toward an organization worthy of our people’s trust and confidence. We must help it along and shape it into a fully accountable force. We have only one PNP.