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Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

A new low

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IS it possible for the Philippine National Police to sink any lower in the eyes of the public?

Arguably not, given the revelations last week that crooked cops kidnapped South Korean executive Jee Ick Joo on the pretext that he had violated anti-drug laws, brought him to national police headquarters in Camp Crame and strangled him, then demanded a ransom of millions of pesos from the victim’s wife while keeping her in the dark about his death.

Confronted with the reality that a murder had been committed in his own home turf, PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa said he wanted “to melt in shame”—yet refused to resign amid growing calls that he step down to spare President Rodrigo Duterte the embarrassment.

“I will ask the President if I am burden to him,” Dela Rosa told reporters during a shooting competition held in honor of his 55th birth anniversary at the Camp Karingal headquarters of the Quezon City police.

“There is no need to be formal about it. I will only ask him,” Dela Rosa said, adding that his birthday wish is that erring policemen change their ways.

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Dela Rosa made the remarks as calls for his resignation mounted.

Even Speaker Pantaleon Alavarez, the President’s staunch ally, joined the calls for Dela Rosa’s resignation.

“The commission of a heinous crime right [under] his very nose is not only an insult but a clear indication that he has lost the respect of his people,” Alvarez said of Dela Rosa.

But the PNP chief, who observed a day earlier that an official in the same position in Korea might have committed suicide in shame, was having none of that on his birthday.

“What more do they want me to do? Commit hara-kiri? Do I need to kill myself so they will be happy? But hara-kiri is painful. Maybe I’ll do it if they will do it with me. To those who want me to resign, let’s commit hara-kiri together.”

“Besides, the case was solved anyway. The mastermind has been identified and we are looking for the other suspects,” he said.

Responding to criticism for attending a rock concert Thursday night amid a serious police scandal, Dela Rosa said it would have made no difference if he had stayed away.

“The victim was long dead when I attended the concert. Would he have risen from the dead if I decided not to go?” he said, with some lack of sensibility to the Jee family.

Where does one begin?

The act of offering to resign seems to be the least a public official can do, given the epic failure that Jee’s murder inside Camp Crame represented. That this happened inside police headquarters speaks of the impunity with which Dela Rosa’s men disregard the law, basic human rights and common decency. It is also the ultimate form of disrespect for the PNP chief and the clearest sign of his failure as a leader.

Did the eventual arrest of the crooked cops change the fact that they murdered an innocent victim inside police headquarters under Dela Rosa’s watch. Surely not.

Why, we ask the PNP chief, should everyone who wants him to resign commit suicide? Did all his critics let their men get away with murder inside their head offices? Did they all give the police the impression that they could get away with murder because President Duterte said they could?

His invitation to suicide is asinine beyond belief—but that should not come as a surprise these days, when the government’s top lawyer argues that the Constitution need not be followed after all, when it comes to declaring martial law.

Finally, we too, like the PNP chief, wish that erring policemen would change their ways—but all of us are old enough and mature enough to know that wishing it will not make it so.

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