Thorough investigation for killing of hostage

Something definitely went wrong in last Friday’s rescue operation by the police of a four-year old boy who was being held hostage at knife point. The police were called to rescue the boy. Instead, the boy suffered 13 stab wounds from his captor and five bullet wounds from his would-be rescuers. The poor boy kept crying and screaming "Mama! Mama!" The mother was on sight but could not do a thing. The shots could only have come from the policemen involved in the operation. There is a possibility that security guards of the Philtranco Bus. Co., on EDSA Malibay, Pasay City may also have fired some shots. What is needed is a fair investigation to establish the facts.

The police were supposed to be the solution to the boy’s hostage problem. It would indeed be ironic if the investigation reveals that they were not the solution. They were the problem.

One thing is certain. No one was impressed by the actuations of the police. The rescue operation appeared in television. There is no question that a single sharp-shooter could have easily disposed of the hostage- taker. Instead, it was both him and the innocent captive that absorbed a rain of bullets.

There are many independent studies that can attest to the inefficiency of our Philippine National Police. Only recently, the Pamantasan Ng Lunsod Ng Maynila conducted a police re-orientation course. The majority of the Western Police District policemen who attended the classes flunked the course due to (of all things!) a lack of basic knowledge of law-enforcement work. Most of those who took the class were not familiar with Manila’s streets or its famous landmarks. And they were totally ignorant of Manila’s existing laws and ordinances. How can policemen implement municipal laws and ordinances they know nothing about?

The value formation tests also revealed that the policemen were violence-prone and trigger happy. Most of the new policemen in Manila come from the provinces so they were total strangers in the city.

We have always maintained that the government fooled the people when it said that the Philippine Constabulary was abolished. The truth is that it was the municipal police all over the country that was abolished. The Philippine Constabulary was simply renamed Philippine National Police. So now we are policed by the constabulary. To be efficient, the first thing a policeman must know is his beat. The neighborhood policeman is a thing of the past. Policemen today cannot even tell you the names of the streets where they are assigned. And if they commit a wrong anywhere, they are not charged. They are merely transferred elsewhere.

The joke is that in the United States, if you call for a policeman, he is there in minutes. In England, they respond in seconds. In the Philippines, if a crime is committed, it means that the police are already there.