EDITORIAL - Cops, robbers

A Pasay City policeman is being held without bail for confessing that he killed champion car racer Enzo Pastor in exchange for P100,000 – a statement the suspect has since recanted.

Over in Quezon City, top officials of the police station in La Loma have been implicated in a case of kidnapping, serious illegal detention and robbery of a businessman and his companion. The victims were in a white Toyota Fortuner that the police suspects waylaid along EDSA on Sept. 1. A witness took a photo of the incident on his mobile phone and uploaded it on Twitter, leading other police officers to the suspects.

The police chief of Metro Manila himself, Director Carmelo Valmoria, arrested Chief Inspector Joseph de Vera Sunday night at the Quezon City Police District Station 1 where the suspect served as deputy commander. The next day, Jonathan Rodriguez of the QCPD’s District Public Safety Battalion was also arrested. Six other QCPD members and a dismissed police inspector are being hunted down.

The positive aspect here is that two of the police officials accused of involvement have been apprehended by their colleagues and charged with brigandage and kidnapping with serious illegal detention. The Philippine National Police, however, will still have to deal with cynical questions on whether the suspects would have been pursued if the photo had not gone viral in social media.

How many other people have been victimized in similar operations, with cops as the perpetrators? And how many victims bothered to file a complaint, knowing that they could end up reporting the crime to more rogue cops?

There has been a crime wave in recent months, with even foreigners complaining about being targeted in violent attacks. The involvement of cops themselves has to be one of the reasons for the weakness in fighting criminality.

Yesterday Malacañang officials vowed “zero tolerance” for police involvement in crimes. Until words translate into reality, the sight of an approaching cop will instill fear rather than a sense of security among the citizenry.