EDITORIAL - Habit-forming

For certain members of the Philippine National Police, it seems old habits die hard. And, as in the previous administration when the PNP was given free rein to go after suspected drug personalities, such habits can cause death.

Last Aug. 2, Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar was cleaning his boat together with a friend in Navotas when members of the city police arrived. Scared, the 17-year-old Baltazar jumped into the water. The police, who were reportedly looking for a suspect in a shooting incident, chased the teenager. One policeman fired his gun into the water, without bothering to give out a warning or to determine the identity of the boy. Witnesses said the cops then left without bothering to find out if the gunfire had caused death or injury.

Police would later establish that Baltazar was not the suspect. By that time, however, the teenager was dead. Six cops involved in the operation face charges of homicide, and are under PNP custody after being sacked. They claimed they merely fired a warning shot, but the PNP’s rules of engagement discourage this, since even a bullet fired into the air can cause injury or death when it falls back to the ground. What the rules require is a verbal warning to stop a possible suspect from fleeing.

Officials have said abuses of police power, which characterized the bloody crackdown on illegal drugs during the Duterte administration, are over under the Marcos government, which is committed to upholding human rights. The killing of Baltazar, described by the PNP as a case of mistaken identity, will always cast a shadow over this commitment.

The incident has raised concerns that a trigger-happy culture has become entrenched in the PNP, especially in low-income communities. No case of mistaken identity is likely to happen if the person had been in a luxury vehicle and had fled to the exclusive Dasmariñas Village in Makati, for example, as Indian businessman Rajiv Ramesh Dargani did in April 2013 following a hit-and-run incident. Dargani was in his Audi sports car when it collided head-on with a motorcycle along McKinley Road in Forbes Park. Driver Henrix Bernardo died while backrider Glenn Nacion Jr. was injured.

Perhaps the feeling of wielding the power of life and death is habit-forming. The sooner the PNP weans its members away from this habit, the easier for the organization to enjoy public trust. This is not the Wild West; one doesn’t shoot first and ask questions later. Especially not the ones who are tasked to enforce the law and keep the public safe. The toll of such a vile habit can be immeasurable, as the bereaved loved ones of Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar have found out.