MAXEY: COPS ASTRAY

'It is saddening how so many really good, efficient and dedicated officers
and men of the PNP have to bear the brunt of public outrage as a result of
their few misguided "bros" who stray from the straight and narrow path of
virtue.'

I WAS watching a television documentary late the other night where a
uniformed policeman on duty somewhere in Metro Manila was seen on hidden
camera indulging himself in the illegal drug shabu. What I saw shocked me.
Imagine a policeman in uniform doing his thing with a prohibited drug
inside a police station? That was a terrific scoop by the television show's
host.

That televised episode eventually was shown to Philippine National Police
chief Hermogenes Ebdane who was so stunned that he ordered the erring cop
and his immediate superior who apparently coddled him investigated. If
investigation shows that the policeman in question has been into drugs, he
will face not only administrative sanction (dismissal) but also criminal
charges for violation of the anti-illegal drugs law.

In an interview, Ebdane sought to allay fears that the incident was
symptomatic of the PNP force in general.

While admitting that some members of the PNP could be involved in drugs, as
users and/or pushers, they are an exception to the rule, he says.

Ebdane said that of the PNP's 120,000 members, there are probably only 0.01
or 0.02 percent involved in illegal drugs. That translates to 1,200 to
2,400 possible suspects. To subject all 120,000 policemen to drug tests at
P300 per individual would eat up 36 million pesos of the PNP's budget, an
amount it cannot afford.

Ebdane said that it would be more practical subjecting to drug tests only
those policemen who are suspected of being into illegal drugs. Be that as
it may, 1,200 to 2,400 policemen into drugs are unacceptable.

Ordinary drug users/pushers themselves already constitute a scourge to
society considering that an estimated 3.4 million Filipinos are into the
vice. But for a man of the law who wears a uniform and badge of authority,
not the least being authorized to carry a gun, to indulge in the vice is
another matter. It stands to reason that it will really prove more
difficult to catch, much less convict, a policeman who has turned into a
criminal than all the other ordinary criminals.

If police chief Ebdane believes that 1,200 to 2,400 policemen - out of
120,000 - who are into illegal drugs constitute only a drop in the bucket,
that's still too many rogues in uniform for this nation's comfort.

And that's only about illegal drugs, mind you. How about the other types of
crimes? It is saddening how so many really good, efficient and dedicated
officers and men of the PNP have to bear the brunt of public outrage as a
result of their few misguided "bros" who stray from the straight and narrow
path of virtue.