THE leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) have recently expressed their concern over the use or misuse of the badge, uniform and the storyline of the teleserye “Ang Probinsyano” aired on ABS-CBN. The soap opera, by the way, is based on fiction as stipulated in a disclaimer prior to airing... “any resemblance to actual events is coincidental.”
How come when fictionalized character PO2 Ricardo Dalisay and uniformed buddies were at war with drug syndicates, nobody cried foul?
Both government bodies asked the citizenry to take cognizance of their efforts to clean and rid their ranks of scalawags and help improve the image of the men in uniform.
Cleansing our already tarnished PNP could come by way of reporting discovered, validated, proven and recorded anomalies, irregularities, abuse and misconduct by policemen. To improve the image, we could report the good deeds, extraordinary performances and acts of heroism by our uniformed men.
Done that. Have we not? Nakavideo pa.
Before we even discuss artistic licensing, let us first define the real world since the operations of the PNP are pertinent to the real world where there may be stumbling blocks in dealing with the ills of society.
In the real world, “padrino system” and “utang na loob” are very much engrained in Filipinos’ DNA simply because of enablers among us. Unfortunately, some of the enablers are in high positions and are very influential persons.
In the real world, Filipinos are easily intimidated by anybody in power, by the rich and famous and by henchmen with guns. In the real world, some Filipinos would lap the feet of those whom they think they can obtain favor from (kung asa makapabor). Principle is then thrown out the window.
And in the real world, some of our country men break the rules thinking “basin pa lang makalusot.” Finally, in the real world, the drug problem is massive that President Rodrigo Duterte himself declared that the drug menace will not be over even after his term ends.
With all due respect, Gen. Oscar Albayalde and Sec. Eduardo Ano, the problem is in the real world. Leave fiction alone. Reactions in the press and social media expressed repugnance against any form of censorship.