Ridding the streets of “kotong”—where jeepney drivers lose some P300 a day to crooked cops—will be one of the first priorities under the presidency of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.
Lacson said he had done this when he headed the Philippine National Police from 1999 to 2001, when he rid the police force not only of mulcting cops but the kotong culture.
“This I can promise: kotong in the streets will disappear,” he said during a sectoral forum with bus operators.
He said that under his watch as Chief PNP, he led by example and did not allow corruption, much less extortion, among his men.
Before that, he said traders and dealers would even give their drivers an extra P1,000 as “panlagay sa highway” or grease money for the road.
Lacson said his “no-take policy” reached a point that policemen would even refuse offers of money from drivers who they would flag down for traffic violations.
Lacson, who is running for President under Partido Reporma, recalled how his late father, Buenaventura, would come home tired and stressed after being victimized by “kotong” cops. This memory would influence him to stop the kotong culture in the police force.
His stopping of the kotong culture in the PNP, as well as other reforms, earned the police – and himself as its chief – high approval ratings from the public, as well as their trust.
Lacson, who is running on an anti-corruption platform, earlier promised to put an end to corruption in government projects where up to 40 percent of the costs are lost “depending on the greed of those who implement them.”
He said that even as the national debt has ballooned to P11.9 trillion, Filipinos still are not benefitting from the projects these funds are supposed to be earmarked for.
“For example, the government implements a project worth ten million pesos, but not all ten million goes into the project. It is reduced by 20 percent, 30 percent, sometimes 40 percent depending on the greed, the greed of those implementing it,” he said.
