zales Camp Crime
The title is not original. I didn't think it up. I just saw this label being bandied around the web by concerned citizens and the press. But it is the inevitable moniker that will be bestowed on Camp Crame, our police headquarters, where the head of our crime fighter, police general Bato, is ensconced.
Why do I say this? Well, the revelations coming out about how South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo was abducted from his very home. How his abode was robbed. How he was tied and duct-taped. How his car was brought inside Camp Crame, and then parked near Bato's crib. And then how he was strangled. To death. Inside the very fortress where his life, liberty and property should have been defended.
But then, expectations are now very low when it comes to the protection of constitutional rights. When President Duterte addressed the police force and charged them with his mandate to run after drug offenders, and then armed them with all the immunity he could offer, the fear that shot through the constitutionalists was that this immunity would lead to impunity.
And so it has.
The culprit is Ricky Sta. Isabel, who is precisely from the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group of the Philippine National Police. Isabel announced a drug raid when his band of criminals entered the Jee residence. That mere announcement, of course, legitimized everything that came after. Who now cares whether a search warrant was obtained? That would have been the first reaction of any self-respecting lawyer, but that question is no longer being raised, the result of a blizzard of arrests and worse.
Needless to say, this reflects very badly on the police force, and immediate steps must be taken to calm the fears of an already jittery populace. As expected, the South Korean community in the country has already expressed their dismay at the developments, and more.
In another location that couldn't have been more disparate from Camp Crame, in the center of Manila's business district, I was speaking to a Japanese executive of a Fortune 500 US company. Over white wine and jamon serrano, the Japanese national, an Oxford and Cambridge graduate calling Singapore his temporary home, expressed to me his fears about having to fly into Manila for our conference.
I had to assure him in nonsensical babble that, oh no, here in the business district, where the wealthy elite were literally littering the streets, it would be well nigh impossible for him to suddenly be dragged into a dark van and then be held for ransom. And then I thought: just what gives me the confidence to say these platitudes?
Just the day before, in the midst of a conversation with a Dutch lawyer from NYU, somewhat contrary views had been shared. Her eldest child, matriculating in one of those international schools in the Fort, was looking for a prom venue. The usual party places were tossed into the idea pool. Pool Palace? Revel?
But wait. The police always raid these stomping grounds of the party crowd. What if a raid happened exactly on prom night, and buy-bust operations leading to arrests turn violent? Would those innocent kids suddenly turn into unfortunate casualties of war? Would they become collateral damage?
Much better to use the school gym then as venue for the highlight of the Manila school year. What memories these students would have to bring to the outside world. A most boring prom, engendered by decisions based on fear and paranoia. But as they say, better safe than sorry.
Why would we think the Cebu Business District, Makati or Fort is safe, when Camp Crame wasn't?
An urgent review of the ranks of the police force should be made. With such powers at their disposal, only those who know how to appropriately and deftly wield these powers should be unleashed. Isabel is that lesson to be learned from.
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