Friday, August 24, 2007 Wenceslao: ‘Mamlantiray’ By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
ONE day in 2005, if I recalled the year correctly, I got a call from my sister informing me of the arrest of my nephew for stealing a bicycle. My nephew was a drug addict and had stolen items from us to finance his vice, so that was not unexpected. But I was told that in this incident his barkadas were the ones who urged him to take the bike.
But that wasn’t the problem. (I told my sister that being locked up in jail was on apt punishment). The complainant chose not to file a case after getting back the bike but the police brought my nephew to the prosecutor’s office to file a case for possession of marijuana. My nephew denied owning the marijuana and, knowing him, I believed him.
I contacted the police station chief, who was in another activity at the Police Regional Office 7. I told him that while I did not mind my nephew being jailed for theft, I would not allow him to be charged with another crime using planted evidence. “Let us do this properly,” I stressed. The chief called up his operatives and my nephew was released.
Planting of evidence, recently pushed into the limelight when lawyer Alex Tolentino ranted against it, is one practice that some police elements have no qualms doing. I think it was initially borne by the honest intention to lock up elusive criminal elements. Plant several grams of shabu on a suspect and he can be jailed without bail.
With corruption gnawing at the insides of the police organization, intentions shifted. Soon we heard the term mamlantiray, or cops planting evidence to extort money from certain personalities. With the entrapment by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 elements of three Cebu City cops, it looks like the practice has gone big time.
I don’t think SPO1 Jaime Otadoy would have demanded P2 million from Ruel Lerio if the money was meant only for him and other lowly cops. The bigger the amount demanded, the bigger should be the number of people sharing the loot. That Otadoy and company dared to do this inside the camp may mean some officers gave it the green light.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador immediately disbanded the Vice Control Section where Otadoy and company belong. That should ease worries of the public that the activity may not have been limited to those entrapped by NBI 7 operatives. But Comendador should not stop there and conduct an honest probe.
Corruption could be one of the reasons why the CCPO seems to have become inutile in battling big-time robbers, drug lords and even petty criminals. A police corps afflicted with the virus of corruption is interested in other things except doing their jobs diligently and well. Worse, the corrupt can link up with criminals for monetary reasons.
On the bright side, the entrapment operation will give honest police officials in the CCPO a chance to effect a cleansing process they may not have been able to do in the past for lack of basis. The Vice Control Section will be reorganized, but the revamp should be thoroughgoing. For all we know mamlantirays are in every corner of CCPO.
TEXT BLIND ITEM. A texter said he was in a restaurant in Banilad for lunch yesterday when he saw a city official enter with a “chick in mini skirt.” She was not his wife.
