GET CRACKING, ANGIE

In the past week, anticrime advocates led by the gutsy Teresita Ang
See have documented eight cases of hulidap. That's more than one
incident a day.

hulidap, for those unfamiliar with the term, describes a modus
operandi where armed men claiming to be law enforcers (often they are
actually lawmen) would arrest a victim on the strength of a real or
trumped-up complaint. But instead of being brought to a police station
for booking, the victims are detained elsewhere and are told in no
uncertain terms to cough up money to make the purported complaint
against them go away and for them to regain their freedom.

hulidap combines the elements of usurpation or abuse of authority,
false pretenses, fabrication of evidence or court warrants, superior
force, grave threats, arbitrary detention and extortion. That police
and other persons in authority are the perpetrators makes this crime
even more revolting than kidnapping for ransom (KFR), which our books
of statutes already classify as a heinous offense deserving of capital
punishment.

While the National Antikidnapping Task Force has succeeded in cutting
down the number of KFR cases to less than one a month since March, the
number of hulidap cases has multiplied.

Ang See recalled an incident where a man and his wife on their way to
the market were intercepted by men claiming to be law enforcers. The
elderly couple, accused of possession of illegal drugs, were forced to
call up relatives and raise the money their tormentors demanded.

In another case, an 18-year-old student who had just withdrawn money
from a bank was accosted by the police who said she was keeping
illegal drugs. Sure enough, the cops were able to produce a sachet of
"shabu," which they insisted they found in her possession. She was
then told that her problems would instantly go away if she handed over
the money she had just withdrawn from the bank. Which she did.

According to Ang See, the ransom paid by victims in those hulidap
cases reported to her group ranged from P700,000 to P1.2 million. She
suspects that there are many more cases that have gone unreported to
their group of anticrime advocates, much less to the police.

Active policemen are almost certainly involved, she said, because in
several of the cases reported to her group the so-called safehouses
where the victims were kept while waiting for the delivery of ransom
were actually police stations.As when the kidnap-for-ransom phenomenon
first reared its ugly head, the recent hulidap victims have been
unwilling to cooperate with the authorities. Their traumatic
experience with lawmen who turned out to be mulcters has made certain
that most victims would be reluctant to extend cooperation to police
investigators. For all they know, the so-called probers could be in
league with hulidap syndicates.

Ang See said that when the hulidap incidents first broke out, she and
her fellow anticrime advocates brought them to the attention of the
Department of the Interior and Local Government. But instead of
immediate action, she said they were rebuffed. From the comfort of
their easy chairs, the officials told them that unless the victims
come forward to file formal complaints, the authorities could do nothing.

Needless to say, anticrime advocates shed no tears when President
Arroyo decided to change her interior secretary.

Interviewed over radio, Ang See sounded somewhat hopeful that the
newly designated DILG secretary, Angelo Reyes, and his team would be a
vast improvement over his predecessor's. That Reyes and his men were
able to put a virtual end to kidnapping for ransom is seen as an
assurance that they would be more proactive in dealing with hulidap
than the officials they replaced. Still, they can only do so much.

Aside from victims who would finally be willing to come out and
testify against their tormentors, the authorities need to get the
cooperation of policemen themselves. As Ang See pointed out, these
officers "know who among their colleagues have suddenly struck it rich."

But it is virtually impossible to expect cops to "rat" on even their
wayward comrades unless, of course, certain dramatic examples are
made. Which is precisely what the public wants Reyes to do.

Get cracking, Mr. Secretary.