Another case

Another case of the so-called "tokhang for ransom" was revealed by Senator Panfilo Lacson. This happened to a Chinese friend of the senator. The method is the same. Police officers accuse the victim of being involved in drugs, but eventually abduct him in order for a ransom to be paid. Being the senator's friend, Lacson did everything to help him released, which did occur after a ransom was paid. The policemen involved were eventually arrested and charged, but to this date, their case has not moved past the preliminary investigation. Surprise, surprise.

Imagine if the victim had not been a friend of the senator, who once headed the PNP. I can imagine more and more money would have been demanded by the scalawags, until they were satisfied or the family could no longer produce enough cash. I assume the victim is now safe with his family. The same cannot be said of the Korean businessman who has been missing since October of last year, after being abducted by policemen of the same criminal mold. I will not be surprised if more cases of this sort will now surface, after these have been made known to the public.

Again, the silence from PNP Chief General Dela Rosa is deafening. From a person known to love the limelight, he seems to have nothing to say about the bad police officers in his organization. His outrageous comments - from saying that if no CCTV cameras were around he would readily kill drug lords, asking people to burn the houses of drug lords down, offering to teach boxing skills to a suspect caught on camera killing an unarmed man because he got beaten up in a fistfight - are all for the sake of the cameras. I wouldn't be surprised if a career in showbiz is in his sights. His antics make him more of a jester than an leader. I remember him raising his shirt to show that he has a gun. He is a police officer after all, so big deal.

He cannot seem to utter the same harsh words he has for civilians in the drug trade on these rogue cops, when their punishment must be more severe for breaking the very laws they have sworn to uphold, and victimizing the very people they are supposed to protect. Never mind that two police officers, one even given a medal by Dela Rosa himself, were caught after murdering an anti-crime crusader. Never mind if CCTV footage revealed the abduction of the Korean businessman, and one of the vehicles used was registered under the name of the police officer's wife. They still deserve due process, and need not suffer the same fate as the underprivileged, alleged drug users or pushers who end up dying in the streets, or even in their own homes. Today it is not far-fetched that policemen involved in crimes may actually get away scot-free, because of the support of this administration. All they have to say is "drugs".

A Senate investigation into these "tokhang for ransom" is in the horizon. I only hope something actually helpful comes out of it, and not more of the drama, the antics, the outrageous statements and comedy that we have now come to expect from the PNP chief.