Utterly irresponsible, monumentally idiotic!

It couldn’t happen at a worse time! While in a drinking session at, of all places, NBI headquarters, two agents got into a heated argument that, surprise, surprise, led to a shooting! One agent, a lawyer – like that even means anything – shoots his co-agent three times! Luckily, the other agent survives and is now in a hospital. I just cannot say enough about the stupidity of this incident! At a time when the NBI is at the forefront of an ongoing investigation into the bloody Atimonan, Quezon shootout or rubout! Seeing the NBI as impartial on the matter, the DOJ has tasked it to lead the investigation, for fear of a whitewash if it was left to the PNP. In other words, the NBI is more trusted than the PNP. That was before this stupid incident.

Indeed, how can you trust an agency to lead an investigation into a shooting, if their agents are busy shooting each other? Sure, you can say that these are the bad apples of the batch. But were they seen as bad apples before they got into this incident? I don’t think so, as one is even a lawyer – like that’s supposed to mean anything in the Philippines nowadays!

Responsible gun ownership is currently one of the hot issues being debated upon, in light of so many gun-related incidents, most of them bloody. The call to totally ban ownership, or the permit to carry of guns by civilians has never been stronger. Like saying that only law enforcement agents should be allowed to carry guns. But does it make the country safer? I don’t think so. If anything, I would be more worried because these defective agents will just lord it over everyone else!

What if this incident occurred outside the headquarters of the NBI? By the way, I didn’t know you could have a drinking session at NBI headquarters. Must be a new rule. Anyway, what if these “responsible, trusted, law-abiding” NBI agents were drinking in a restaurant jam-packed with people, and the inevitable happens? What if instead of an agent being hit three times, four other people were hit by the agents’ bullets? That would have been a much bigger nightmare!

Needless to say, DOJ Sec. Leila de Lima was disappointed, to say the least, by the incident at NBI headquarters. Much is expected of the NBI, and its agents. Aside from suspending the agents and all who were at the said party, or whatever that was, the shooter must be criminally charged, tried and punished for what he did. And because of command responsibility, the head of the NBI must answer for the incident, or at least act harshly on the agents involved and lay down stricter rules and measures to avoid a similar incident in the future. Why was a drinking session allowed inside the headquarters? And why would you be armed while drinking. This is what I just do not understand. Clearly, responsible gun ownership is not in the vocabulary of these agents! Nothing could be more irresponsible than to be armed while drinking. How many times have we read of incidents like this one, whether it happens between civilians or “law-abiding/enforcing” agents?

So what happens to the NBI’s image after this? Back to zero. Can we really trust anyone in law enforcement anymore?