EDITORIAL - What ails the cops ails the system

A number of delegates to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings being held in Cebu over several weeks in August and September and some policemen tasked to secure them have been treated for a variety of ailments, mostly minor ones. This is not surprising and should cause no undue alarm. People do come under the weather and for as long as the ailments are not serious and pose a threat to public health, everything may be taken as a matter of course, except in the case of the policemen.

While the delegates who have fallen slightly ill may have simply suffered from the stress of travel and of being in a new and unfamiliar place, the ailments suffered by the policemen came in tandem with reports of inadequate meals and not very comfortable accommodations for those who are not from Metro Cebu but had to be brought over from outlying towns and nearby provinces to augment the security detail.

Higher police authorities in the region have assured that the matter of inadequate meals and spartan accommodations is being investigated. While no one has imputed or alleged any wrongdoing in these shortcomings, these are indeed lessons to be learned so that next time the same problems will not crop up again. Be that as it may, there have been a few facts that have been established even prior to the investigation.

For one, there have indeed been meals that do seem inadequate when taken against the kind of job the policemen are expected to do, which is to be out there in the field, under the heat of the sun, with all the dust and fumes from passing vehicles, or to be in the rain in case they do not take cover. The meals seen by media and photographed and printed, consisted of a cup of rice, a single boiled egg, and a couple of spring rolls.

Obviously, the policemen did not ask to be fed like the delegates. And what they were fed was probably a feast than if they were in a battlefield. But hey none of these circumstances apply. In fact no one is trying to engage anyone is a debate. A statement of fact is all that it is. And the fact is, a cup of rice, a boiled egg, and two pieces of spring rolls do not measure up to a good and sufficient meal. To some, policemen or not, that is just snacks.

The point is, could such insufficiency contributed to the ailments suffered by the policemen? Could the added insufficiency of rest not have exacerbated the situation? Photos taken of the policemen's accommodations show they had hammocks to sleep in instead of beds. A hammock may be great for a siesta under the shade with a cool breeze blowing. But for real sleep, a hammock is restrictive and cramping. Line them up in a airless and humid gym and you can really get sick.

Again the policemen did not ask to be accommodated in hotels. But by God, could not the government have afforded them better accommodations fit for human beings tasked with the important mission of securing foreign guests? Providing security is a function that requires the best from the provider. What a pity if a tired and hungry cop fails in that duty for he will most surely get fired for a fault that may as much be of government's as it is his.