Policing the police

Not quite known for its sterling reputation, the country’s police force has been linked to some of the nastiest crimes in recent years. This week, three police officers from Caloocan City were charged with extortion and illegal gambling, while the commanders of 19 police stations in Davao City were reassigned to nearby areas, an unprecedented move whose lack of explanation does not bode well for those concerned.

Despite the public being exposed to the unscrupulous ways of some uniformed personnel, the involvement of several police officers in the brazen killing of a beauty pageant contestant from Pampanga and her fiancé reveals a new depth to the moral depravity of these supposed law enforcers.

Based on information from one of the suspects who might yet become a state witness, authorities unearthed on Saturday the decomposing bodies of beauty pageant contestant Geneva Lopez and her Israeli boyfriend Yitshak Cohen. Both were last seen June 21 on their way to supposedly check out a piece of land hocked to them by a former cop.

Bullet-riddled bodies

Police have identified seven persons of interest in the case, with five of them now in custody, including the former policeman who had acted as the middleman in the land deal. According to the informant, he was hired to drive the vehicle by two former cops, Michael Guiang and Rommel Abuzo, who were dismissed from the police service in 2019 and 2020, respectively, for going AWOL (absent without official leave). With Lopez now wanting to take possession of the land that the former policeman had used as collateral for his debt, he set up a supposed meeting between the couple and a potential buyer of the land. The following day, the couple’s torched rental vehicle was found, with their bullet-riddled bodies dug up two weeks later.

While the tragic ending may have provided some semblance of closure to the couple’s family, it has also raised crucial questions on how loosely the country’s police force is being supervised, even when they have clearly skipped the confines of law and the rightful authorities.

Shouldn’t the two main suspects, dismissed from service for going AWOL four and five years ago, have been monitored more closely, given their lackluster service record, previous contacts with criminal elements, and presumably questionable means of earning a living?

Renegade personnel

Their easy access to firearms should have been revoked as well, as their previous work experience would have made them adept at wielding such weapons. What is the police procedure in the case of renegade personnel? Do the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Police Commission exercise oversight functions over these errant cops at all?

Another police officer is seen to be involved in the case of beauty pageant contestant, Catherine Camilon, similarly missing since October last year. She was reportedly last seen with dismissed police officer Maj. Allan de Castro, with whom she allegedly had a relationship. Although the case of kidnapping and illegal detention against De Castro was dismissed for lack of evidence, the Philippine National Police vowed to exhaust “all available legal remedies” to have the case reviewed. But by dismissing De Castro from the service without getting any leads from him on Camilon’s fate, the PNP just let him off the hook and free of accountability for his illicit relationship. Would it have helped for the police as well to have imposed a stricter code among its married personnel to at least prevent unnecessary distractions from their job that, in some instances, could result in fatal complications?

‘Internal cleansing’

The latest spate of police misconduct has prompted the group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption to bemoan the failed promise of “internal cleansing” in the police force that DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos proudly unfurled in 2023, when he called on high-ranking PNP officials to submit their courtesy resignation to weed out those involved in the lucrative drug trade. In fact, PNP records show that 325 police officials, including four colonels, four majors, and seven captains, were dismissed from service for grave offenses from January to July 3, 2024. This is on top of 279 erring cops axed since President Marcos took office in 2022.

In an interview, PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the police would exercise a more extensive background check of applicants and recruits to the service, a belated intervention that hardly touches those already comfortably ensconced in the force. Just as important to telegraph its serious intent to crack down on recalcitrant cops is for the PNP to implement stricter monitoring of its active and former personnel, and regular lifestyle checks to discourage questionable or dubious rackets that could compromise their integrity. It’s about time for the PNP to seriously rein in police involvement in crimes that they should have prevented in the first place, lest it makes a mockery of the organization’s vaunted goal “to serve and to protect” the public.