Policing the Pulis

Last July 15 at around 7:00 pm, my wife Shawie and I were heading towards Timog to have dinner after dropping off our daughter Vette at my in-laws’ house in Cainta where she was spending the weekend. We were looking forward to a peaceful evening as well as having some time for just the two of us.

A few meters after the intersection of Kamias Road and Kalayaan Avenue in Quezon City, a white Toyota Revo with tinted windows drove alongside our car on the right side. When we reached a portion of Kamias where a parked jeepney obstructed the lane of the Toyota, the Revo suddenly turned on police-type flashers, sounded its wang-wang siren then indiscriminately swerved into our lane. I couldn’t veer to the left to avoid the Revo because if I did, I would head towards on-coming traffic and that would’ve caused a bigger accident. The Revo’s left rear wheel well hit my car’s front right fender causing a minor dent but instead of stopping to survey the damage, the driver just drove on. Not wanting to be a victim of a hit-and-run accident, I pursued the Revo for a few hundred meters, cut in front of it and when it stopped, I went down to confront the driver.

I assessed the Toyota Revo with plate number VAZ-647 and figured that it was one of those vehicles that security men used to back-up government bigwigs, or at least with its green plate, it was pretending to be one. Inside the vehicle were two men: the passenger was a short, stocky guy wearing a blue barong while the driver was another short, stocky guy wearing an untucked checkered shirt and both appeared to be packing guns in their waists. The driver went down and immediately whipped out a piece of paper and began writing my cars license number.

Instead of apologizing for his mistake, he tried to bully me into admitting that I caused the mishap. When I asked to see his driver’s license so we could exchange numbers and be on our way, he arrogantly asked me "Bakit pulis ka ba? (Are you a cop?)" I answered no and asked him if he was a cop. He said "Oo, pulis ako. Anong problema? (Yes, I’m a cop. Do you have a problem with that?)" My wife, who was six months pregnant, lost her cool and confronted the driver. "Pulis ka pala eh, bakit bastos ka magmaneho? Ang tatay ko pulis colonel pero hindi siya abusado tulad mo! (So, you’re a cop! Why do you drive recklessly? My father is a police colonel but he never abused his authority unlike you!)" The driver turned to my wife and arrogantly asked her "Bakit, sino ba ang tatay mo? (Who’s your father anyway?)" My wife got further pissed by the driver’s arrogance and angrily told him my father-in-law’s name: Police Senior Superintendent Jainal "Jun" Jamasali. The other party suddenly seemed humbled.

My father-in-law is known around police circles as a tough and strict disciplinarian. He used to command the police complement of the Presidential Security Command (PSG) during the coup-plagued term of former President Corazon Aquino. When he was the deputy regional director for administration (DRDA) of the ARMM-PNP camp in Parang, Cotabato, he disciplined the cops who shot the boy that was grabbed by a knife-wielding crazed man in the sensational Pasay City bus terminal hostage crisis some years ago. He was so strict that some of the ex-Pasay City cops who were sent to him and couldn’t muster his disciplinarian policies went AWOL.

In spite of his rank and sterling record in the PNP, I never saw my father-in-law don his PNP ID or display his police uniform inside his car or use a siren or those red-and-blue police flashers to slice his way through traffic. In fact, he doesn’t even use his car during its coding day nor does it have any sticker alluding to the PNP. In Cotabato, he drives around with security escorts because of the secessionist threat there, but in Metro Manila he drives himself to work without a phalanx of body guards or police escorts. He is one of the few remaining police officials who commands respect because of his strict adherence to the law and its enforcement.

Unfortunately, he seems to belong to a dying breed of honest, hard-working and respectable cops. Before 1972, the military and the police were trained to respect civilians above anything else. The Martial Law regime drew a thin distinction between these two forces and spoiled both of them, creating a culture of abuse and arrogance. Most policemen developed a sense of superiority over civilians and flaunted this authority by violating laws that they were sworn to enforce. Stories of police officials coddling criminals or masterminding illegal operations hogged the newspaper headlines while stories of abuses committed by cops fill the pages of tabloids. Sadly, stories of honest and valiant cops are printed in a small section or not published at all.

On the streets, you can tell if a driver is an abusive cop by the way he drives — he doesn’t stop for stoplights, he bullies other drivers around, cuts other cars as if the road was made for him and he parks his car where he pleases (paradang pulis). It gets worse when the cop owns a tricycle, taxi or passenger jeepney because the driver emulates his owner’s driving style, confident that the cop-owner can bail him out whenever he gets into trouble. This is perhaps the reason why some PUVs, especially FX taxis, place a "PNP POLICE" sticker complete with the PNP logo on their front windshield and rear window to intimidate other drivers about the PUV driver’s police connection.

This abuse of authority is further encouraged by government officials, congressmen, some media men and their relatives who are assigned police escorts. The police escorts themselves may be low-ranking cops or military personnel but the way they taunt other drivers, one would think that they’re above the law just because of the undeserving VIP they are escorting. The law states that only the vehicle convoy carrying President of the Republic of the Philippines and authorized police vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks responding to an emergency are allowed to use sirens, yet these VIP escorts will just wail their sirens without justification except perhaps to slice through traffic. Suffer the chaotic traffic jam like the rest of us, you pompous idiots!

This is probably why the P01-ranked cop who was driving the Toyota Revo that hit my car acted like he did at the start of our encounter. If I had been just another Juan dela Cruz, he would have cowed me into submission. If my wife wasn’t related to any police official, we would have been charged with obstruction because the cop-driver later tried to claim that they were responding to a police emergency. (Emergency my foot! They were assigned by their "boss" to fetch someone from Starbucks at the ABS-CBN compound. I should know — we even dropped off the suddenly-meek P01 near Gerry’s Grill after his barong-clad companion left him with us at Camp Karingal to file the police report. And true to form, we found the Toyota Revo parallel-parked on the street facing the wrong way.)

Are our taxes really intended to be used this way? Do we pay taxes to train, arm and pay monthly salaries to policemen who do nothing but escort bigwigs who do nothing but corrupt our government even further? Do we pay taxes to be intimidated on the road by police escorts who think they’re above the law? Do we pay taxes to be afraid of some abusive cop who does not follow even the most menial of traffic laws? Do we pay taxes to allow the PNP to tolerate all these abuses?

I don’t think so. With the government coffers running dry, the PNP is a great place to start cutting down on expenses, especially on unnecessary bodyguards and undeserved police escorts. Somebody should start policing the police.

Send your comments or your unforgettable encounter with arrogant cops to this column or e-mail it to [email protected] . It’s time we let the PNP top brass know what we feel.

Here are some of your Backseat Driver comments from last week.

I know this has always been a problem, but will the MMDA not do anything about buses along EDSA causing traffic by stopping anywhere? — 09178548909 (You can’t expect them to do that! They’re too busy trying to spot the last digits of our plate numbers!)

The MMDA men at the corner of Tramo and Andrews Avenue do nothing but wait for violators. — 09215432838 (See what I mean?)

The u-turn barriers at Commonwealth Avenue near the UP pedestrian flyover northbound side causes heavy traffic! — 09209056144

Can you give me the exact date of Manny de los Reyes’ column next month so I can read part two of his how to buy a used car article? — 09276511562 (Manny actually mentioned it in his column last week — August 24.)

Can someone explain to me why motorcycles and cyclists like to use the fast lane? It’s bad enough that slow vehicles use it! — 09176228517 (Is this like a trick question or something?)

Is there a law banning cars with dark tinted windows? If so, the police should apprehend the drivers since traffic lawbreakers are hiding under the tints. — 09163419153 (Sorry. There is no such law.)

Attention MMDA: España corner Lacson near UST, there are PUJs waiting for riders. Vehicles from Nagtahan have to squeeze to be able to drive through. Traffic obstruction! — 09196407296

Why not make fuel consumption of new cars a mandatory display in advertisements? — 09183772340 (The occasional good idea comes from Backseat Drivers…)

Ganito ba ka-hina ang mga traffic enforcers natin? Mga mayayaman naka-wangwang lahat? Dapat pantay-pantay lahat sa batas! — 09274791964 (Hindi lahat ng mayaman naka-wangwang. Lahat lang ng ^$@*&$)

Please write something about the Hyundai Getz. Thanks. — 09165885780 (We have. Many times over. The last one came out last June 1. It was a comparo against the Kia Picanto written by James Deakin. It’ll probably take some time before we write about it again, though. Text in again if you really want a back issue.)

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