AGAIN: COPS AS BAD GUYS

The Involvement Of 2 Police Officers In An Alleged Kidnapping With
Extortion Caper Embarrasses The Police Anew

True Or Not, Whether The Law Enforcers Were Framed Or Guilty As Sin Or It
Was Plain Bungling, The Police Didn't Need This Distraction Amid The
Campaign Against Criminality

The police didn't need this new smear on its reputation. But it's there.
Like a large splash of black paint for the public to see and hiss at and
condemn.

The arrest of two police officers the other night "one being no less than
the chief of the Cebu City Police drug enforcement unit (DEU), Nicolas
Salvador, a senior inspector, and his subordinate, one PO3 Razul Segismara
"reportedly made OIC police chief Josephus Angan groan.

For a good reason. The police need public support to wage the war
against criminality, which has remained an uphill battle. While the
rash of robberies has slowed down, thieveries have gone up, and the
suspects in the big holdups still have to be caught.

Public support requires police credibility. The Salvador incident
punches another large hole on public trust in the police.

The case also distracts, wasting time and energy that can be put to
better use in solving crimes and catching suspects.

Cebu City's anti-drug trafficking campaign, of which Salvador had an
important role, will be disrupted for a while as his replacement struggles
to fit in and help win back public confidence in the DEU.

Salvador and Segismar, still presumed innocent, have a lot of explaining to
do before police investigators and prosecutors why they detained two
alleged drug pushing suspects and hid them in a motel without recording
their arrest and why the cops who are supposed to be the good guys ended up
holding marked money.

Even the explanation that clears them, however, can also be disturbing.

Perhaps, they were framed by a drug syndicate to derail the drug campaign?
If they were, that means a devious adversary with enough skill and
resources to pull strings to pit cops against cops.

Or was the arrest of Salvador and Segismar the result of a
Keystone-cops-like snafu in a police operation, the product of inefficiency
and miscommunication?

Yet, even the simpler explanation of wayward cops starving for fast cash is
still distressing.

Kidnapping suspects and keeping the hostages in the police unit's office,
with the chief of the police unit as brains in the extortion, can frighten
any concerned citizen.

No Risk Of Contempt

Few will think CIDG chief Edwin Diocos and his men will risk contempt if
they fail to arrest Ruben Ecleo Jr., cult leader and former mayor who is
wanted for the murder of his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo.

As long as they make genuine attempts to arrest, the lack of success cannot
be contemptuous of the court that issued the warrant.

Otherwise, many law enforcers would now be in jail for contempt of court
because they couldn't capture fugitives like ex-cop and murder-robbery
suspect Engilberto Durano, jail escapee and robbery suspect Riel Bautista
or Cebu City Hall absconder Rosalina Badana.

What must compel Diocos and company to get Ecleo is that Ecleo is defying
the law, scoffing at the justice system, and mocking the state.

That should be more than enough compulsion "aside from the public applause
they would get.