Wednesday, October 08, 2008 Editorial: Kotong cops, they never learn
IF THERE'S anything most consistent about the city mayor of Davao, it's his love for the mountains -- as the ultimate destination for those he deems as undesirables, that is (whether we agree with his criteria for being undesirable is another subject though) -- and fiery temper toward law enforcers who insist on bringing their kotong-collecting ways into the city.
And so the traffic group of the Davao City Police Office has been temporarily disbanded and the mayor has hinted at assignments in Paquibato district, the city's most remote and most rebel-infested area being on the mountain boundaries of Davao del Norte and Bukidnon and just a rebel-walking-distance from Agusan, as well.
That should serve as a stern warning to the kotong cops, who time and again hog the limelight.
Despite this consistent stance of City Hall against erring law enforcers, however, it's saddening, if not appalling, that kotong persists and that it's the cops who persist on doing it.
It may be as the police are saying that the bad ones are but a few. But they're there, just as consistent, like an indelible blot in the integrity of the police force. That's the sad reality.
Indeed, times are hard, but everyone's just as hard up. It's no reason for a policeman to use his authority to prey on drivers of cargo trucks, fish cars, and habal-habals, who are even more hard-up than policemen with their regular government standard grade salaries and a little bit more from the City Government.
"If you need anything, go to me, not to the stores or to the people," Duterte said in a press conference last Monday.
Dabawenyos know there is truth in that statement. For isn't it in our city where policemen get bonuses like a little rice ration and equipment and lots of goodies on Christmas?
Hard times can never be a reason to flout one's sworn duty, and yet this still happens. One of the reasons will be because we, as the victims or observers, prefer to keep quiet.
Last Monday's press conference can thus be regarded as a call for all those who have been made to shell out a few pesos or more by people who use their uniforms and guns, to come out, report what you know. That's the only way to stop corruption, whether it's just a roadside kotong, or big-time extortion.
Anyway, we have several more mountains to deploy them to.
The louder marching order, however, is for the police themselves to keep a tight rein on their colleagues. It's never enough to just admit that these few "bad eggs" are giving the whole force a bad name. It's never enough to shrug these incidents off as just isolated cases of individual corruption. Without an equally strong stance against kotong right within the organization itself, nothing will ever change. The act will disappear, while the public's eye or the mayor's ire is focused on it. But it will resurface, preying by the roadside, and knocking on some storeowner's door.
