The only thing worse than living under a police state is living under a criminal police state.

Police states are predictable. They have only public order in mind. Violate the peace and suffer the brutal consequences.

Criminal police states have no agenda than the enrichment of those who wield police powers. Anyone could become victim if they have cash and no connections. The consequences are many times harsher.

What happened to Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo is most frightening. The poor man was arrested on some pretense, dragged to police headquarters at Camp Crame and strangled to death only meters away from the quarters and offices of PNP chief Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa.

The murderers responsible for this dastardly crime went on to collect a P5 million ransom from the victim’s wife. The corpse was brought to some rundown funeral parlor and through obviously false documentation was cremated. According to one source, the ash was flushed down the toilet. The victim’s own golf set was used as payment for the disposal of the evidence.

The details we now know are frightening. But that is not the end of it. It appears there are string of other similar crimes attributable to the same police gang that murdered Jee.

The South Korean government is, understandably, keenly following developments in this case. In addition to an early resolution of this particular murder, they are asking the Philippine government to review a slew of fake arrest warrants issued against their citizens.

The Korean community here is, understandably, alarmed. This is a community of small businessmen who feel targeted because they are vulnerable. In a society where personal connections matter, the community feels they are defenseless.

Our government ought to relieve that sense of vulnerability. Our officials must not only apologize profusely for what happened, quickly investigate the culprits and assure all foreign residents their safety is at the heart of our law enforcers.

PNP chief de la Rosa says he melts with shame over what happened. This is a scandal of truly serious proportion. But it also speaks of a deep institutional malaise that cannot be cured overnight.

That cynical description of the PNP being the largest criminal organization in the country is not entirely baseless. President Duterte, in that voluminous file he carries around, admits there are 6,000 policemen involved in the drug trade. That does not yet account for all those involved in other rackets: protecting illegal gambling operations, extortion activities in every form and, possibly, gun-for-hire services.

Why else would police officers lobby and even bribe their way to the most lucrative provincial and regional command positions?

The PNP, we should admit, is a deeply damaged institution. For years, it has labored with a weak internal affairs mechanism. Administrations have tended to coopt the power networks rather than correct them. The malaise cannot be easily remedied.

Damaged or not, the PNP is today expected to undertake the grave missions associated with the war on drugs. The criminal syndicates within the organization could take advantage of a hectic and furious campaign to do their thing. For instance, Jee was kidnapped on the excuse he was a drug suspect.

The sheer number of “deaths under investigation” already strains the mechanisms for maintaining discipline and organizational integrity. This is why the band of policemen who kidnapped and murdered Jee thought their criminal acts would somehow escape scrutiny.

Large (and often unwieldy) as the PNP is, the institution is actually undermanned. The population-to-policemen ratio is frightening as it is. Common crimes are often left unattended because of the sheer number of sensational crimes to attend to. The internal affairs service has its hand full.

The danger signs were evident two decades ago. After the Philippine Constabulary (PC) was disbanded, things began turning bad for the police. For many decades, the PC was a check on the police. Without the Constabulary, the PNP lorded it in many areas, a prey that lost its predator.

For many years, the imbalances created by the disbandment of the PC were left unattended. The need for a stronger internal affairs service was effectively neglected. The National Police Commission was undermanned and effectively powerless to control turf-builders in the police force. The DILG could only exercise minimal oversight.

There is truth to the perception that the PNP evolved into a universe unto itself. It was less accountable to local executives. Area commanders managed to build little fiefdoms, aided by the criminal interests willing to pay for police patronage. As a consequence, there was little consistency in law enforcement across the regions and provinces.

There was also little consistency across the services within the organization. The criminal investigation services have been the most powerful as well as the most easily corrupted.

Those who tried to reform the PNP relief on constantly shuffling officers and commands. Doing so glosses over the organizational vulnerabilities. Shuffling officers is an ultimately futile effort.

There might be some merit in the hope the organization might change if police officers are trained in a separate academy and the PNP is demilitarized. But the change has been too long in coming and some of the snappy cadets from the police academy soon evolve into goons.

The most merciful way to look at the problem is to blame all the problems on a bunch of “scalawags” in uniform. But short of a thorough reinvention of the PNP, those “scalawags” seem to reproduce like rabbits.

Sure, everything begins with strengthening internal affairs services. It is a scandal the PNP relies on the NBI to solve its personnel problems.

Source: https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/01/21/1664646/criminals