Bribe or gift or whatever

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- For the nth time, President Duterte came under fire for his latest remarks about policemen receiving gifts from generous and thankful benefactors. According to him, “It is not bribery if the gifts are given out of gratefulness.”

But Senator Ping Lacson said otherwise. Instead, in a tweet on social media, he said, “Mr. President, insatiable greed starts with simple, petty graft. It could be more addicting than drugs. There is no detox, nor is there rehab facility available for addiction to money.”

Bribe or gift or whatever, it is quite hard to check this especially when gift-giving is part of Filipino culture, except that the recipient must have the ability to submit himself to his senses of determining right from wrong, and seeing to it that there are no strings attached to the gift.

Similarly, the senator who claimed corruption takes many forms said, it all depends on the individual’s interpretation of which one is a corrupt act and which one is not, although there are laws and jurisprudence related to receiving gifts.

Sen. Lacson recalled that he made it a point not to accept reward money from families of kidnap-for-ransom victims when he was PNP chief saying, he did not want cops to discriminate against poor complainants presumed as incapable of giving rewards if assisted.

True, as the senator said, it all depends on the individual police directors and local chief executives if they will accept monthly payoffs from jueteng operators so their operations would not be raided.

On the other hand, neophyte Senator Bato dela Rosa who commented in support of President Duterte said, receiving gifts is “no big deal as long as it is given out of goodwill,” even admitting that he received so many gifts on Christmas time.

He said, he could not stop people from bringing gifts to his office during Christmas, but “it’s a different thing if you will accept gifts from a drug lord or a gambling lord. That’s not good.”

Sen. Bato emphasized that accepting gifts from people with questionable characters and motives was however prohibited. “The spirit of the law is to avoid bribery from taking place,” he said.

With their sides presented, obviously the two former PNP chiefs contradict each other. While Sen. Ping Lacson said he does not want his men to accept gifts from the families of kidnap-for-ransom victims, Sen. Bato cited an incident where a family of a rescued kidnap victim sent lechon to the police station to thank the cops.

Again, the unwritten rule is to determine which is right from wrong, although the law says, “public officials and employees shall not solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of monetary value from any person in the course of their official duties.”

Sharing life stories years ago with lowland farmers, our conversations always reached the point when they relate to me how they want one of their sons to become a policeman, or anything that will wean them away from farm life.

Relative to the stories about policemen and how they go about their work, I recall the topic “how to police the police.”

The matter of cleaning police ranks baffled sociologists in the past. It means, police work is neither a walk in the park nor an easy public service task. But in a Filipino family where survival is a priority, seeing their children become employed as policemen is important.

Many traditional families view the police organization as an easy venue for employment evenwhile they know that police work is stressful as it deals with everyday people. It also needs a little of everything as in sociology, a bit of psychology, rationality, and good judgment.

And so, we see that a majority of the more than 150,000-strong Philippine National Police, most of them raised in families of the working-class bracket, are in pursuit of better life. The rest have various goals such as to become police generals, become rich and become politicians after retirement.

For some, their choice is a road to glory that becomes necessarily wayward, depending on the goal and interest. And when uncorrected, the poor guy is trapped very deep into the underworld and participates in crimes – then he is caught.

The list of crimes involving policemen has no end. The cases filed against cops are illegal drugs, rape, and illegal discharge of firearms, abuse of power, illegal detention, kidnaping, homicide, extortion, carnaping, robbery and “hulidap”.

Based on police records, around 700 officers are facing summary dismissal. In 2013, over 2,000 administrative cases were filed against police officers for various complaints, and by looking at the situation now, maybe the number has increased.

By the way, how come jueteng and protection of gambling operations are not being mentioned in the reports?

The list does not end. There was the rape of a woman by a desk duty officer inside the Manila Police District headquarters. Then there was the report of a Manila police commander who was caught on video torturing a naked crime suspect who had a rope tied to his genitals.

In 2010, the Office of the Ombudsman filed graft charges against the “Euro Generals” involving 12 ranking PNP officials for carrying a large sum of undeclared money into Russia.

And as many as 62 cops were accused of complicity in the Maguindanao massacre where 57 people, including 30 journalists, were summarily executed and their bodies dumped in open pits in November 2009; and many more.

But how should the police – police the police? The Commission on Human Rights recommended that the PNP should ensure immediate arrest, prosecution and conviction of erring police officers.

Every time the PNP changes its chief, they make announcements to review recruitment processes to ensure psychological and moral fitness; and strengthen the human rights education and training program of all police personnel. But even with trainings, still the number of police criminals (excuse me for the phrase) is up.

In the first two years of President Duterte’s term, he increased the take home pay of policemen. Still, we read about ordinary cops committing big and little crimes. For the late DILG Secretary Jessie Robredo, he said, erring policemen should immediately be terminated from the service. That is, if one has committed a crime.

But what about the gifts or the bribe? Only the recipient can answer that because it is only he who can distinguish a gift from a bribe.