EDITORIAL - Lawbreakers in the PNP

Four policemen, two of them with the military rank equivalent of lieutenant colonel, were tagged yesterday in the theft of seven kilos of shabu with an estimated street value of P35 million from the storeroom of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Two of the police officers have been arrested; two others are at large.

Earlier this week, two members of the elite police Special Action Force were also arrested for a shooting spree in Manila that left a vendor dead. Shortly before that, two members of the Northern Police District were arrested for carjacking and the abduction of a Chinese-Filipino businessman in Valenzuela.

The list goes on. Over the years cops have been implicated in everything from petty theft to extortion, organized crime and summary execution. The public should probably be glad that rogue cops including ranking officers are being identified, arrested and prosecuted. But the indictment of cops for various crimes almost every week is a worrisome sign of the deep rot in the Philippine National Police.

The PNP, cobbled together from the Philippine Constabulary and Integrated National Police, had an inauspicious start in the integrity department, with the first PNP chief himself being implicated in corruption. Over the years the PNP has managed to refurbish its image enough to regain a measure of trust from the public including Chinese-Filipinos, the favorite targets of kidnappers. Still, the continuing involvement of cops in criminal activities shows that much remains to be done.

PNP members themselves must help cleanse their ranks. There are honest, competent cops who are admired for their courage and integrity. If they want to wear their uniforms with pride, they must not remain silent in the face of criminal activities committed by their colleagues.

Apart from throwing out the rotten eggs, the PNP must also tighten its recruitment requirements. Many of the cops implicated in criminal activities are young. Do they enter law enforcement to break the law? There are many applicants for the police force; the PNP can afford to make its screening process more rigid.

Once the rotten eggs in the PNP have been identified, they must be prosecuted, convicted and severely penalized. Punishment must outweigh whatever benefits cops hope to gain in betraying their oath.