Beware of the PNP!

Lessons must be drawn from the most recent near-fatal incident in Pasig where elements of the Traffic Management Group of the PNP chased and peppered with bullets a certain Randolf Carlito on board his Toyota car on the grossly mistaken suspicion that he was their target of attack or chase. PNP’s chronic powder-keg mentality must be shelved.

It turned out Mr. Carlito, who miraculously cheated death, is alone, unarmed. There are no traces whatsoever that will lead operatives to reasonably believe that the senior vice-president of a Laguna-based corporation is about to commit a crime. Problem is, any Juan dela Cruz could be PNP’s next hapless victim unless heads in the PNP are made to roll, now.

There ought to be a full-dress investigation on the case – with no attempts of a cover-up or whitewash – in the interest of justice. This early, reports had it that the TMG planted evidence in the subject’s car trunk – some bullets and dubious car plates – where there were originally none. Not few fear PNP might produce new material evidence against the innocent victim if only to justify and save the policemen from any culpability. Pray not.

Not very long ago, a pack of young men from prominent families, were peppered with bullets by the PNP in Pasig on suspicion that they were the dreaded carjackers. Results of investigations however proved there was never a shootout, contrary to PNP’s official claim. The disconcerting deaths by summary execution of these innocent individuals as captured live on video simply tell us the unadulterated truth behind the incident. It is now cause for alarm.

It bears watching what the results of the investigation of this near-death shooting of Mr Carlito would again be. He has survived to tell his story – the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Problem is, PNP, as expected, will issue another version complete with evidence even dossiers – these stuff being made to appear – as if they were factual at the precise moment the incident happened. Can the lawyers of Mr. Carlito be taken to task? Please do.

We must call to mind that during the short-lived state of emergency, the chief PNP can only invoke as justification its straightjacket intelligence reports. Thus, if no one – judge, court, or third-party expert – can even as much as question the validity of an intelligence report(s) because it simply has to be taken at face-value – indisputable, irrefutable, foolproof – then where would our search for justice, if any, lead us to? Can the PNP still protect the citizens?

From where I stand, what happened in Pasig – if those responsible for the Carlito shooting will not be dealt with severely – shall resurrect itself as many times over as possible. If we may just correctly borrow from GMA, the whole weight of the law must bear upon them. It escapes understanding how the TMG men were able to arrive at the conclusion that they should chase a car with just the one driving it on board and puncture bullet holes all over it without even having seen the person they were shooting at. What brutish act of the PNP is this?

The Senate and the House must not fail to initiate investigation – in aid, better still, of the eventual abolition of the PNP. The police organization has outlived its raison d etre. The institution is now running amuck – beating rallyists without mercy, sweeping clean EDSA of any pack of rallying crowd – going physical, going ballistic, gone loco. What kind of a PNP do we have? Can the Civil Service Commission put some controls over PNP as a civilian agency?

Few suggestions must be made in the light of this happenstance. One, Congress must invent a new law requiring policemen license to their personal or issued firearms and the same requirements for their permits to carry firearms outside of residence. A central database of all firearms issued with licenses and their corresponding ballistic records shall be made. Two, PNPA, the academy that has produced this bad species of police should be abolished by an automatic budget of only P1 peso effective immediately. Three, the PNP should never in any instance wear a uniform other than the officially prescribed blue-uniform – not fatigue, not camouflaged, not black, not civilian – so they will not be mistaken for members of the AFP or gun-totting mercenaries. Beware of our moronic PNP – they just shoot like some Al Capone.