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Saturday, December 11, 2004
Editorial: Police control
IT DIDN'T take two weeks for the city police to nail the suspect in the rape of a female disc jockey intern after a concerned citizen--who may actually be a police asset--gave them the info on the latter's whereabouts.
As it turned out the suspect is a Batang Mindanao 29 (BM 29) member who worked as a passenger jeepney conductor and faced charges of illegal possession of firearms. And no surprise, he happens to be the girl's neighbor.
When asked about these charges the suspect wanted to go C.S.I (Crime Scene Investigation) by asking that his semen be examined for experts. If he wanted that he could have asked sperm bank people to get his sample.
Nevertheless it showed that if the city police exercised some brain power they could get the job done. They did get whacked with a series of robberies the week before but had gotten their act together a little.
Now if they could only arrest the suspects behind the robberies that victimized bus passengers, one commercial establishment and a barangay treasurer in Libona, Bukidnon province.
There were unconfirmed--by this we stress unconfirmed---reports that the barangay treasurer, a certain Loren Tan, didn't survive the shooting. If that were so, that's a red mark on the city police's record.
In the wake of this crime spree the city government came out with the old proposal to have Congress enact amendments to the Local Government Code returning police control to the local government units (LGUs).
Their reasoning stems from their contention that only if Mayor Vicente Emano has total control over the police then these crimes won't ever happen and Cagayan de Oro would be one crime-free zone.
And again we reason out that the motive behind the centralization of appointments for the PNP police chiefs is that this would prevent local officials from turning the PNP into their own respective private armies.
This proposal had seen better days and even Sen. Manuel Villar who chairs the Senate committee on police and public safety said he's willing to experiment alloting the police control to urban LGUs in the country.
However there are people who remain skeptical about this proposal because they want the city police and the military and other law enforcement agencies to remain apolitical even while being under civilian authority.
But then the city government officials don't get it and instead insist that people should entrust the police to the wisdom of their local leaders.
(December 11, 2004 issue)
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