REVELATIONS last week that a South Korean businessman was strangled inside national police headquarters after being kidnapped by anti-drug officers to extort money from his wife have sparked fears of more abusive policemen taking advantage of the government’s anti-narcotics war.
The subsequent Senate inquiry into the case, in fact, uncovered at least 12 more instances in which corrupt policemen had victimized hapless civilians.
In one of these instances, CCTV footage captured police officers in civilian clothing planting drugs at a call center, just ahead of a raiding party that “discovered” the planted evidence.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who showed the video, said the police officers took P7 million worth of loot from the raid, and even asked the business owner for an additional P2 million to ensure they would not return.
Lacson, a former national police chief, emphasized that the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo—who was kidnapped from his home in Angeles City on Oct. 18, 2016—was not an isolated incident.
He said there were at least 12 cases of rogue policemen victimizing Chinese nationals, based on information from the anti-crime watchdog Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order.
In one case, eight armed policemen kidnapped Xia Xin Ming from his house in Manila and demanded P3 million from the family. Lacson said the victim was still subjected to inquest proceedings even after the ransom was paid.
In another case, the victim’s family paid P1 million in ransom, even as the victim was made to withdraw more money from an ATM machine while under police custody.
On Oct. 24, Lacson said, policemen took another victim in Muntinlupa and demanded P500,000 from the family. But because they only gave P200,000, they filed an illegal drugs case against the victim, who is still in jail.
There are also several cases in Bulacan and Makati, he added.
“These are incidents to show there are really excesses being committed by our policemen,” Lacson said
But Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, who said he wanted to “melt in shame” at the news of Jee’s death at the hands of police, nonetheless said these were “isolated cases” and should not be used to discredit President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.
Dela Rosa, who has promised a major shakeup at the PNP, misses the point.
It doesn’t matter if the Jee case and other documented instances of police abuse are isolated incidents, and it is meaningless to say that the vast majority of the police force is honest and hardworking.
Even if this were true, significant damage has been done to the already tarnished image of the PNP. The fact that a policeman had the temerity to commit murder inside police headquarters suggests that he fully expected to get away with it, and throws open the possibility that others among the ranks feel the same way.
Calling the police for help should not be a matter of rolling the dice and hoping that a crooked one doesn’t respond. Police are supposed to protect the people, not victimize them. In an ideal world, they ought to bring a sense of security and respect. In the Philippines, they bring fear and loathing.