No honor committee at the PNPA

It seems the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) needs to include in its curriculum classes on morals, so that its graduates are guided by their conscience.

PNPA is the police counterpart of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), whose cadets become second lieutenants upon graduation. PNPA cadets also get the rank of lieutenant when they graduate.

At the PMA, honesty is inculcated among the cadets early. A cadet who cheats is dismissed outright; a fellow cadet who does not report the cheating cadet is also dismissed.

At the PNPA, professors who are police officers teach cadets how to avoid getting caught if they commit shenanigans when they’re already in the force, according to a former professor who is a civilian.

The former PNPA professor told this columnist that police officers teach differently from their civilian counterparts in the faculty.

This does not happen at the PMA, where faculty members, both military and civilian, inculcate moral values among the cadets through the Cadet Corps’ honor committee.

The honor committee is composed of one representative per class (first year to fourth year) from all companies – Alfa to Hawk. Representatives are elected from each class of each company.

Many PMA cadets have been kicked out of the academy for honor violations, such as cheating in class and not telling the truth when asked if he had done something wrong.

The PNPA doesn’t have the equivalent of the PMA honor committee.

Police officers who teach cadets police science oftentimes divert from the lessons at hand and relate their past mischiefs in the field.

For example, one police officer would teach his students where to hit crime suspects under investigation in order not to leave telltale marks on their bodies. The subject was about human rights.

Other police professors would tell future police officers that accepting bribes is unavoidable in the force since most policemen accept bribes anyway.

The immoral values learned from professors who are PNP officers are applied by the impressionable young men and women when they become full-fledged police officers.

Lt. John Kevin Menes of PNPA Class 2021 was an example of a rotten product of the police academy.

Menes was arrested by fellow policemen in an e-sabong station splurging P500,000 that he allegedly stole from his unit in the drug enforcement group of the Calabarzon Police Regional Office. Calabarzon is an acronym for the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.

Earlier, Menes also reportedly borrowed a Honda Civic sedan from a subordinate, which he never returned.

The PNPA Class 2021 is notorious for having other misfits among its members who applied the immoral values they learned from the academy.

One of Menes’ classmates at the PNPA was Rock Dela Rosa, son of former Philippine National Police chief and now Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.

The young Dela Rosa was never subjected to discipline by upper-class cadets, tactical officers and professors at the PNPA, courtesy of his father who was still in the service at the time.

Rock dela Rosa would slip away every night from the cadet barracks and sleep in his home or at the Special Action Force (SAF) camp a few kilometers away from the PNPA campus. He would return to the campus early in the morning.

Rock failed in several subjects in his four years at the academy but was still allowed to graduate within four years.

At the PMA, a cadet who fails in one subject repeats the whole year; if he fails in two or three subjects he gets kicked out of the academy.

The PNPA class of 2021 is also notorious for the use of illegal drugs by some of its members when they were still cadets.

The illegal drugs were slipped into the academy by personnel at the mess hall.

An investigation was conducted due to the serious breach of discipline; however, nothing came of it.

This columnist learned about all the above-cited information from a former professor.

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While it is true that the government earns humongous amounts of money every day from e-sabong, it should also consider the social problems created by online cockfighting.

Schoolchildren getting addicted to online cockfighting, a mother selling her infant child and a young police lieutenant, newly graduated from the elite Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), absconding with money from his unit are just a few examples of what e-sabong does to our society.

Yes, we need revenues to support the country’s sagging economy, but must we sacrifice our moral fiber?

That’s a rhetorical question that needs to be answered.

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The quarrel between my brother Ben and Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo O. Teves has become a source of amusement by netizens who watch their antics across various online media outlets.

It’s like they’re preparing for the time they will meet in the streets.

The more sparks between them fly online, the more people eagerly await the day they would finally confront each other in the streets.

Cut out your antics, guys! People are making fighting cocks out of you.

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Somebody from Negros Oriental tipped me off on the identity of one of the bodyguards who helped Kurt Teves beat up a security guard at the gate of BF Homes village in Las Piñas recently.

Kurt is son of the comical congressman who at first defended his son but kept quiet later when video of the incident was shown on TV and in social media.

The policeman is Cpl. Neil Jay P. Santillan.