EDITORIAL - SAF 44 legacy is opportunity for redemption

One by one they have been laid to rest, the fallen 44 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force massacred by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its alleged breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. The fallen heroes were part of a posse going after two Islamic terrorists last January 25 when ambushed by the Philippines' supposed peace partners in Mindanao.

Two of the fallen were Cebuanos - PO2 Windel Candano and PO1 Romeo Cempron. Like their other comrades who gave up their lives that Filipinos may stay safer from the senseless violence espoused by terrorists, the burial of Candano and Cempron was attended by hundreds, if not thousands, of people the majority of whom were neither relations nor acquaintances but simply showed up to pay their respects and express their gratitude for their heroism and sacrifice.

But more than the courage and heroism with which they carried out their mission, the fallen 44 may have left a legacy that, as of this writing, has remained largely unnoticed, lost understandably in the deluge of sympathy and praise that a grateful nation has bestowed on their memory and honor. It is this legacy that we would like this nation to embrace and nurture.

Unknown to many, the fallen 44 have left the door wide open for real and dramatic changes to take place within the Philippine National Police, an institution that, until the Mamasapano incident, had a reputation that almost quite literally stinks. Indeed, even the Mamasapano incident itself is strung up tight in a straight jacket of controversy involving the head of the PNP itself, Alan Purisima, who was eventually forced to resign.

Right up to the time of Mamasapano and just before the hand of Purisima in its planning and execution was subsequently exposed, the PNP rated so lowly and poorly in almost any survey that sought to determine credibility and trustworthiness. Simply put, policemen were often looked at with distrust. And sadly, policemen themselves were greatly responsible for the unflattering perception.

But when the SAF 44 fell in the circumstances that they did, it triggered a nationwide self-assessment in people, even including policemen themselves. At no time in the contemporary history of this nation has the image of the police risen so high. And there was even no need for a survey to know that. The feeling was simply palpable in the air. People and policemen stood side by side in a mutuality of kinship and respect that was unheard of.

Let this renewed perception not go to waste. Let the new respect of the people in their police be used to effect a genuine transformation. The police as an institution must take this as a golden opportunity at redemption. And that is the golden word - redemption. The fallen SAF 44 have inadvertently left their surviving comrades in the police force a golden opportunity at redemption. That is the legacy they left behind.