EDITORIAL - Psycho cops

If this story is true, the Philippine National Police needs a thorough review of its policies on the mental health of its members. Last Thursday in Baguio City, the local police dug up the dismembered body of Emmanuel Ballos de Asis, an executive master sergeant assigned at the Puerto Princesa Police Provincial Office in Palawan. The remains were found in a vacant lot in the family home of another PNP officer, Lt. Col. Rhoderick Pascua.

Taguig City police probers said Pascua had given an extrajudicial confession, admitting that he shot De Asis dead in front of the killer’s wife Rosemarie, also a police executive master sergeant. Probers said Pascua had walked into his wife and De Asis “engaged in intimate relations” in the living room of the Pascua couple’s home in Bicutan, Taguig. Pascua reportedly ordered Rosemarie to get a hacksaw, which he used to dismember De Asis. Probers said Pascua placed the remains in a rice bag, which he loaded into his Ford Ranger and transported to Baguio for disposal.

Relatives of De Asis have vehemently denied that the victim was having an affair with Pascua’s wife. The victim’s son, PNP Capt. Anthony de Asis, posted that the “demonic” Pascua couple along with “10 to 20” unnamed accomplices had kidnapped and tortured the victim to death, with the murder planned as early as March this year. The motive for this supposed murder plot was not specified.

Crimes of passion are not unusual, but hacking a dead person with a hacksaw is exceptionally grisly. Such brutality is not supposed to be seen in the PNP, but unfortunately keeps popping up.

In the bloody war on drugs waged by the Duterte administration, people tagged as drug suspects were found dead with bound wrists and ankles, their heads wrapped in plastic and packing tape. South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo was kidnapped for ransom under the guise of a drug sting by members of the police Drug Enforcement Group, brought to PNP headquarters at Camp Crame and strangled to death in his car. Jee’s remains were brought to a funeral parlor for cremation and the ashes flushed down a toilet. The convicted brains, PDEG colonel Rafael Dumlao III, is at large and could commit a gruesome murder again.

Psychiatric examination is required in PNP recruitment, and for the regular renewal of gun licenses and permits. Yet the public keeps seeing psychotic behavior being manifested by certain members of the PNP. Law enforcement can involve the use of violence and armed force, but within reasonable bounds. Instead what the public keeps seeing is the excessive, lethal use of force. This problem must be addressed decisively by the PNP.