Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Speak out: Erring TRS police team By Tessie B. Fernandez Lihok Pilipina
YOUNG people, watch out.
If you are commuting and do not want to end up at the police’s Thief and Robbery Section (TRS), make sure you carry the receipts of valuables in your bag like a laptop, camera or cell phone.
And do not insist on asking for the name of the officer who searches your bag even if he does not have a badge or even if you fear he might plant a pack of shabu inside it.
That was what happened to our son, Victor, on July 23 at around 11 p.m.
After a late evening work in their office in Ayala, Victor accompanied his girlfriend to her workplace at a call center at the IT Park.
He then took two jeepney rides home to Tisa.
They were stopped at the Shell station in Banawa by a police team whose members were not in proper uniform and did not have nameplates, except for the leader who had a badge.
Only male passengers were asked to go down for inspection (there goes the gender sensitivity workshops we conducted with the police).
Like the others, Victor was asked to open his bag.
He remembered what happened to his cousin Jason weeks before when they were asked to get out of the taxi and were later shown a pack of shabu supposedly taken from their seat.
So Victor asked for the name of the police officer before opening the bag.
The officer considered this arrogance.
He never gave his name; only the woman identified herself as Captain Recla.
One of them even said, "gikan pa tingali na'g rally" (Human Security Act?).
He was then asked for proof of ownership of his laptop.
He couldn't show one.
That laptop was new, bought last June when victor was on training in the US and the receipt was sent online, which can be downloaded in the files.
Besides, who would carry a receipt for something one uses at work everyday?
Victor had shown them his office ID card.
Had they used common sense, they would have known that a laptop was a logical tool for a computer engineer instead of arresting him and hauling him to the TRS headquarters along Gorordo Ave. without reading him his rights.
On the way, one of them asked for his name, where he was going, etc.
When they found out that he was Bimbo's son, one of them said "ato na lang ni husayon."
What if they did not know he was Bimbo's son, would they have allowed him to go home?
Could he have stayed in one of those dungeon-like rooms like his cousin did weeks ago?
I feel sad because when names and relations matter in the application of the law, this means rule of law is not the rule, it is whom you know.
I have always tried to teach my kids to face life by themselves, to be vigilant of their rights.
Now, the police define this capacity to take care of oneself as arrogance.
At Lihok Pilipina, we see the effect on adults of trauma experienced in childhood.
I just hope this incident does not create trauma in my son and make him stop bringing his girlfriend to her workplace before he comes home, or worse, lose trust in the enforcers.
I heard that a boy who was jailed with his cousin for "arrogance" because they insisted in knowing what their violation was is now afraid to go home by himself and calls home after his 9 p.m. class.
We each have our role in this world.
I hope law enforcers can be sensitive and transparent with their own protocols.
You want trust, show trustworthiness.
One can't trust someone who hides his identity in performing a public duty.
Unless enforcers think they are as powerful as the Dark Lord Voldemort in “Harry Potter,” "the one who can't be named."
