Yearender: Highs and lows for PNP

MANILA, Philippines - The year 2010 was a roller coaster ride for the Philippine National Police (PNP), earning praises for its vital role in ensuring honest and peaceful national and local elections, while condemned for failing to successfully resolve the hostage crisis that resulted in the death of eight Hong Kong tourists.

PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo described 2010 as “exciting” for the 135,000 strong police force.

“I can say it’s exciting,” Bacalzo told The STAR of his assessment of 2010 for the PNP.

“We have had different programs, national elections in May, we were praised to the heavens for that election, but then there was the torture case, then the Aug. 23 hostage taking crisis,” he said.

“The misery started with the torture case, then the bloody hostage-taking incident. Nobody would like it to happen,” remarked Bacalzo.

Bacalzo said the PNP leadership has since begun programs to address problems in the police force, including case investigation management and courses promoting respect for human rights.

When he went around the country, Bacalzo encouraged his men “not to be distracted by recent events and let us treat them as lessons learned.”

During the first months of the year, then-PNP chief Jesus Verzosa pushed for a national firearms control program as part of efforts to minimize crimes on the streets and ensure peaceful and orderly presidential and local elections last May 10.

The House of Representatives approved the measures but the effort, which meant to provide for stiffer penalties for crimes relating to firearms and light weapons, had been sidelined due to political bickering in the Senate.

Despite the absence of the measures, the PNP managed to handle the May 10, 2010 first-ever automated national and local elections well.

The election was considered to be the most honest, peaceful and orderly in the country’s history.

Observers said the elections really reflected the true will of the people, as President Aquino received a soaring high 84 percent of all votes cast.

In return, Aquino rewarded Verzosa by accommodating him in his administration.

Verzosa was one of the few appointees of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom Aquino allowed to remain in his administration.

Aquino said he would keep Verzosa until his mandatory retirement at age 56 on Dec. 25, 2010.

Verzosa, though, indicated his plans to depart ahead of time to give younger officers the chance to lead the PNP.

However, just as the PNP was savoring their contributions to the successful elections, the media stumbled upon a video showing a police officer cursing and whipping a suspect while pulling on a rope tied to his genitals.

Yet even while investigating the torture allegations against Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug, chief of the Asuncion, Tondo Police Precinct, Rolando Mendoza, a dismissed Senior Inspector, took 25 Hong Kong tourists hostage inside their bus in front of Quirino Grandstand in Manila last Aug. 23.

Many thought the hostage-taking incident would end peacefully because Mendoza appeared cooperative by releasing some of his hostages and asked authorities to look into his dismissal from the service.

Yet, all hell broke loose when Mendoza went on a shooting rampage, killing eight of his hostages and ending when police shot him in the head.

The incident then became an international issue with the death of eight foreign tourists and the hostage-taker.

The 10-hour hostage crisis prompted several foreign countries to issue a travel ban to the Philippines due to security concerns.

The bloody incident also served as an eye opener on the need for continuous training for policemen and acquisition of more equipment for use in crisis management.

Dramatic scenes from the hostage crisis were flashed on national television, but a police officer provided a comic touch in the tense situation when he lost control of the sledgehammer he was using to break open the door of the tourist bus.

Adding to concerns, members of the assault team were only wearing police uniforms without protective gear, vests and helmets as they tried to confront a desperate police officer armed with long and short firearms.

After the hostages were brought to nearby hospitals and Mendoza’s body was removed, Aquino went to the crime scene to personally assess what went wrong.

Aquino took responsibility for the disaster and created a fact-finding body, headed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, to look into the hostage crisis and come up with recommendation to prevent similar incidents in the future.

De Lima’s vice chairman was Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Additionally, officials of the DILG were not spared from criticism for their alleged failure to remind police officers about guidelines in handling the crisis.

Further, it was later learned that the two top DILG officials, Robredo and Undersecretary Rico Puno, were not seeing eye-to-eye due to their own “turf war.”

Under the law, Robredo has the supervision and control over the PNP as concurrent chairman of the National Police Commission (Napolcom).

However, Aquino verbally instructed Puno to be in-charge of day-to-day activities of the PNP, thus causing friction between the two DILG officials.

Aquino later prevailed over his two appointees and instructed them to stop bickering and proceed with implementing his administration’s program.

Yet before the fact-finding body had concluded its inquiry, Verzosa retired from the service on Sept. 14, allowing Aquino to appoint Bacalzo as the new chief of the PNP.

Verzosa continues to cooperate with the investigation, even after he stepped down.

However Bacalzo, who had barely settled into his new position, was met with accusations of being “on the take” while protecting jueteng.

He denied the allegations, saying his previous positions in the PNP did not allow him access to jueteng money.

Bacalzo has ordered an all-out war against jueteng and imposed a one-strike policy on police commanders who fail to stop the illegal numbers game.

Under Bacalzo, the PNP has continued the program initiated by his predecessors, Roberto Lastimoso, Panfilo Lacson, Leandro Mendoza, Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Edgar Aglipay, Arturo Lomibao, Oscar Calderon, Avelino Razon Jr., and Verzosa.

Bacalzo also assured the public that PNP resources would be used to identify all the accused in the Maguindanao massacre.

Task Force Maguindanao director Chief Superintendent Benito Estipona said 83 accused have been accounted for, including seven members of the Ampatuan clan.

Twenty tracker teams have been created to locate and arrest 112 others, including 21 Ampatuans, 10 policemen, four military personnel, and 78 members of the Civilian Volunteer Organization which acted as private armed groups for the Ampatuan family, he added.