Feb 12, 2011

Cops as criminals in the Philippines

By Joel D Adriano
Asian Time Online
 Feb 5, 2011

MANILA - A female street vendor was allegedly raped and robbed inside a police station in Metro Manila over the new year holiday. In Quezon City, a group of anti-drug police officers, including the unit's head, waylaid three Indian nationals on seemingly spurious charges. Two of them were discovered dead a few days later.

Last year, a Manila police commander was caught on video torturing a naked crime suspect who had a rope tied to his genitals. As many as 62 cops stand accused of complicity in the Maguindanao massacre, where 57 people, including 30 journalists, were summarily executed and their bodies dumped in open pits in November 2009. A cop from Zamboanga City now faces murder charges for allegedly killing an employee of the Land Transportation Office, while others have been implicated in drug trafficking.

Added to that growing list of offenses to have shaken public trust in what was already viewed as one of the Philippines' most corrupt institutions is the case of the busload of Chinese tourists taken hostage and gunned down last August by a disgruntled officer who had earlier been dismissed from the force for alleged abuse of authority.

Some 730 officers now face summary dismissal from the service for a wide range of violations. From January to November last year, over 2,000 administrative cases were filed against Philippine National Police (PNP) officers for various complaints of misbehavior, according to police records.

Security analysts blame the alarming number of criminal incidents involving police, coupled with weak and inefficient law enforcement, for a recent upsurge in crime. Organized crime groups, many believed to be working in cahoots with corrupt police officers, are now on a virtual rampage across the country, they say.

That includes last month's still unexplained bombing of a bus in the country's main financial district, Makati City. The blast killed four people and injured 14 others. Meanwhile, media attention has focused on the grisly murders of two car dealers, where assailants posed as drivers and killed the sellers after a test drive. Both bodies were found dumped north of Manila and burnt beyond recognition.

Harry Roque, a human-rights lawyer, believes the prevalence of such incidents is a symptom of the country's deep-rooted culture of impunity, where killers and criminals are seldom apprehended or prosecuted. He currently represents the families of several suspects killed in the Maguindanao massacre. More than a year after the massacre, more than 120 suspects are still at large and court proceedings have moved at a snail's pace.

The violence and lawlessnessis is taking a toll on tourism and foreign investment, analysts say. Organized crime rings have recently launched a series of car jackings and kidnappings for ransom that have specifically targeted foreigners or Filipino emigrants who are back in the country on holiday. The assaults have been commonly carried out by heavily armed assailants who instigate traffic accidents and either kill or apprehend their victims within a few kilometers of Manila's international airport.

The crime wave has raised hard questions about President Benigno Aquino's ability to maintain law and order. His government has struggled to respond to the mounting high-profile crimes and pressure is intensifying for him to produce credible crime fighting results, including prosecutions of politically powerful players.

During last year's election campaign, Aquino's political opponents often portrayed the former lawmaker as impotent and lacking in executive management experience. One rival senator has since described his administration as government run by a collegiate body, a dig on the number of his college mates appointed to high positions. His chief official for police affairs, Rico Puno, a close friend, has made himself scarce to journalists during the surge in reported police-related crimes.

To be sure, police abuse is not new to the Philippines. During the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippine Constabulary, the precursor to the PNP, was widely feared as an instrument to suppress political opposition, often through violent means. Its elite strike force, known as the Metropolitan Command, or Metrocom, stood accused of various abuses, including involvement in extortion and illegal gambling rackets.

After Marcos was ousted in a popular revolt in 1986, there was a strong clamor to reorganize the police, which led to the creation of the PNP in 1991. Twenty years later it has become apparent to most Filipinos that the 135,000-strong police force changed only in name, not in practice.

For their part, police officials blame the rot on a faulty recruitment process, where loopholes in the screening of applicants hinders proper background checks, and a severe lack of resources. Patronage politics in the PNP means that many are admitted despite having criminal pasts. Once in the force, many questionable figures get fast-track promotion due to personal connections.

Moreover, a lack of training and resources for modern forensic investigations has driven officers to commit rights violations to extract confessions from suspects. PNP records show that eight out of 10 police officers handling criminal investigations nationwide lack any formal training. Millions of police and court documents have not been properly filed at National Bureau of Investigation, which to date lacks a computerized data base.

More critically, salaries of cops are not commensurate to the risks they face. A low-ranking police officer makes only 12,500 pesos (US$290) a month and approximately 60% of the police force are estimated to live below the poverty line.

Many live in squatter settlements and cannot afford to send their children to school, according to a recent study by the University of the Philippines and the CORPS Foundation. Half of the police officers they surveyed said that they have no bank savings. Lean economics "leaves members of the police force vulnerable to corruption, bribery and criminal activities", according to Pacific Strategies and Assessments, a global consulting firm. 

Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved

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