EDITORIAL - Exercise in futility

The Philippine National Police is urging people to report petty crimes. The appeal was made in reaction to survey results showing that about 70 percent of petty crimes go unreported. The reason for this is the same reason the appeal of the PNP will likely go unheeded: people feel that reporting a case of snatching or minor burglary is not worth the trouble, since it will never be solved.

These minor cases often shape the public’s impression of whether the PNP is doing its job well. The state is tasked to keep lives and property safe. Yet how many people, after reporting a petty crime to the police, manage to recover their stolen vehicle side mirrors and household aluminum ladders? Women in jeepneys whose earrings are yanked out by snatchers see no hope of catching the thieves.

Even people who lose mobile phones to muggers rarely see the culprits caught or recover the stolen property. Cops, assisted by barangay personnel, are supposed to know the hangouts of such thieves and their fences. Seeing that this is not the case, crime victims no longer bother to report to the police.

PNP officials said this attitude emboldens crooks to commit more crimes. Filipinos are aware of this, but if the PNP wants public cooperation, it will have to show that reporting minor crimes will not be an exercise in futility. Suspects must be caught, prosecuted and penalized.

As it is, too many thugs are getting away with crimes big and small. Journalists and activists are being murdered with impunity because hardly any perpetrator has been caught. The motorcycle has become a handy tool for snatching, armed robbery and murder, with helmets effectively concealing identities and license plates smudged and too small to read.

Gunmen on a motorcycle murdered a mayor of Zamboanga del Sur, his wife and two others last Friday right outside the NAIA Terminal 3, and there’s no CCTV footage of the crime. The previous night, the wife of lawyer Raymond Fortun was also shot and critically wounded by men on a motorcycle outside her home in a gated village in Las Piñas where vehicles must display stickers issued by the homeowners’ association.

In many parts of the country, communist rebel extortionists torch private property with impunity while in Mindanao, kidnapping for ransom remains rampant. If the PNP cannot deal with serious offenses, how can it persuade the public to report petty crimes?