UNTOUCHABLES

Late Wednesday night Ryan Jaworski and four of his friends were arrested in
the posh district of San Juan. They had been shooting up the neighborhood,
citizens complained, for three nights running. High-powered firearms - four
nine-millimeter Glock pistols and an M-16 assault rifle - were found in
their possession, the M-16 in the back of Jaworski's van. Jaworski and his
friends admitted to having fired the guns, but claimed they had been
hunting sewer rats for sport.

From the start, the investigation was half-baked and clouded over by
official ineptitude. The San Juan police requested the PNP Crime Lab for
tests on the five, but only paraffin tests for powder burns and a
breathalyzer test to see if any of them had been drinking. No ballistics
examinations were done on the seized weapons. No drug tests were conducted
on the men.

The paraffin test results were negative. A police paraffin expert said this
does not mean no guns were fired; wearing gloves, wind factor, humidity
factor - all can affect the results of the tests. Nonetheless, the men were
released and Ryan changed his story, claiming that he had not fired a gun
in the first place.

At first the charges were piddling: "alarms and scandals," a crime carrying
a maximum of six years imprisonment, usually reserved for reveA-lers
lighting firecrackers on New Year's Eve.

But at least there were charges: in March 2001, Ryan and his wife were
reportedly seen buying illegal drugs in Makati. Police who witnessed the
transaction invited him over to the station for questioning, but changed
their mind when he flashed them a calling card. They let him get away.

If there were any drug possession charges, they did not prosper. Police
later excused their negligence by claiming Ryan Jaworski would have used
his powerful connections to escape punishment anyway. The guns found in
two vans owned/driven by Jaworski and friends were high-powered assault
weapons only soldiers, policemen and security guards are allowed to carry.
Ryan Jaworski boasted that not only were the weaA-pons licensed, he also
had a permit to carry them. But granting his certificates are authentic,
this only gives rise to more embarrassing questions.

Civilians are not allowed to own high-powered firearms. The rule may be
relaxed if there is an upsurge of lawlessness in the applicant's area of
residence, a situation that certainly does not obtain in posh San Juan.
Someone with Ryan's connections might manage to obtain such weapons
nevertheless. But although the wealthy and powerful bask in official
indulgence and tolerance, they still are refused permits to carry
high-powered firearms outside of their own homes. How was Ryan Jaworski,
who had already made the headlines in a drug-possession incident, able to
procure his permit to carry?

Belatedly, the inquest prosecutor has amended the charges from simple
alarms and scandals to illegal possession of firearms. But not until fears
were expressed that the case might be whitewashed, through the intercession
of Ryan 's dad.

A nauseating double standard attends criminal investigations in this
country. Cases involving celebrities, top officials, big businessmen and
their kin are whitewashed or allowed to peter away. Comedian Vandolph, who
drove his van into the path of a truck, killing his girlfriend in the
process, was never prosecuted. He was a minor and should never have gotten
behind the wheel. Rep. Rudy FariA as, whose wife hurled herself from the
23rd floor of her condominium, could have been investigated for domestic
violence, but the tumult of the incident died down within days.

As for ordinary lawbreakers, they are clobbered, presented to tabloid
photographers and bundled off to jail, where they might languish uncharged
for years.