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Thursday, March 16, 2006
Wenceslao: Primitive law enforcement
By Bong O. Wenceslao
Looking back at the controversial release on bail of the four suspected members of a kidnap-for-ransom gang arrested last week at the Mactan airport, one can only long for the law enforcement setup in more economically advanced countries. Or should we say in countries where politicians are less corrupt and are not so obsessed with power.
But I may just have watched too many crime investigation stories. I mean those that show scenes of a cop punching on a computer keyboard and after a few seconds sees on the monitor the criminal record, if any, of a suspect. It wouldn’t have taken days for the local police to find out that one of those arrested in Mactan has a warrant of arrest.
Like what I have been pointing out in the aftermath of the release of the four suspects, the main fault there was the slow exchange of information on their background. Had warrants of arrest or other data been available, filing a case against those arrested by Lapu-Lapu City Assistant Prosecutor Geronima Baring would have been superfluous.
I am not giving Baring a way out. Their filing of the complaint of usurpation of authority instead of illegal possession of firearms against the four is questionable. And I have heard stories about the way the Lapu-Lapu City prosecutor’s office is run, including the characters of the people there. But really, their filing of the case was secondary.
If the illegal possession of firearms case, for example, was the one filed, the bail would have been raised to, say, P200,000 per suspect from mere P10,000 per. But even P200,000 is affordable for kidnap-for-ransom gangs. The companion of the suspects could still have raised the money and they still would have walked away as free men.
But back to sophisticated background checking. No matter how much you try to give your mind free rein, eventually you end up accepting reality especially when you visit ordinary police stations in the country and see policemen firing away at their rickety typewriters while investigating suspects. How can record keeping be easy that way?
TEXTREAX. This one is from trinity_shy@yahoo.com: “About the rape case against Fr. Joey Belciña, walay babaye nga magpakauwaw sa iyang dungog labina kay ang iyang giakusahan nga nagguba sa iyang pagkababaye usa ka pari. Kun sa mga lolo ug lola pa nato, walay aso nga makumkom. Busa, ayaw palabi sa imong gibati, padre. Gusto ba ninyong mga alagad sa Diyos nga mawad-an og pagtoo ang katawhan sa inyong katilingban?”
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ 0915-9228651)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 16, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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