EDITORIAL - Hoodlums in uniforms

No less than the top policeman of Central Visayas has admitted that there are many police scalawags in the region. Police Regional Office-7 director, Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, said some policemen are involved in illegal activities.

Sinas refrained from naming these erring policemen, only saying that PRO-7 is monitoring them and their activities. The regional police director also did not divulge the number of PRO-7 policemen who are engaged in illegal activities but said corrective measures are being done against them.

Telling his men that they should all lead by example, the police official said he is ready to step down if there are reports he is receiving bribe money. In fact, since assuming the PRO-7 leadership, Sinas directed all his men not to accept any form of gifts.

The problem of police scalawags has long existed. Since the Marcos regime, there were already policemen engaged in robbery, kidnapping, extortion, illegal drug trade, and other criminal activities.

Nowadays, despite efforts to rid the ranks of hoodlums in uniforms, the Philippine National Police leadership seems helpless in its drive to clean up the organization and transform it into a model government agency.

Even President Rodrigo Duterte seemed to have lost his trust in the police force. In one of his recent visits to Cebu, Duterte accused almost all Cebu City policemen and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-7 of being drug addicts.

It seems the problem on police scalawags is here to stay. Many see no amount of effort to reform the organization will be effective unless an honest-to-goodness approach is implemented from top to bottom.

Corruption and other illegal activities have already become part of police culture. Eradicating them requires a gargantuan task that is difficult for this present and the coming administrations to fulfill.