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Batas Mauricio .

POLICE Director General Oscar Albayalde is absolutely right: it is certainly not accurate to say, as the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women—Asia-Pacific did say, that “palit-puri” (or sex with policemen in exchange for freedom of arrested crime suspects) is a rampant anomaly at the PNP. I can agree that, yes, perhaps not all policemen are of the same sex drive.

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But, please pardon me for saying that he is nevertheless still mistaken. The fact is that, Albayalde cannot deny that while not all members of the PNP seek sexual favors from those that they arrest or from their hapless relatives, there is certainly a big and worrisome number of cops hereabouts who regularly indulge in this kind of a sexual aberration, or, in many other instances, in mulcting and extortion activities against persons arrested by them.

All that General Albayalde has to do is to pay attention to the lifestyle being sported by a lot of policemen, and he will surely not fail to notice the “good life” many of them enjoy. This is the reason why I propose that what Albayalde should be concerning himself with, at this point that only a few months in his term are remaining, should be the introduction of fear and love of God among his subordinates, whether officers or mere rank and file.

I know this is some kind of a “mission impossible,” if we will only look at the capabilities of a human being. But it is an absolutely “accomplishable” work, if only Albayalde will look to God on the issue. I am sure that if he will only ask God in all humility and sincerity to help him teach his policemen, his wish will unquestionably be granted. If that happens, it would his biggest legacy to the police force and the country as a whole.

As of now, all the former chiefs who served at the PNP from 1991 have been forgotten, principally because they failed to introduce truly relevant changes in the police force while they were leading the organization. The same sorry fate or future awaits Albayalde if he can’t bring the police to a true fear and love of God.

***

Two important points which, to me, are very important in ensuring a truly beneficial change for the Filipino people surfaced as separate reactions on a Facebook post I made.

The post pertained to the incapacity of people in government, from the highest officials to the lowest, to solve the unending problem of heavy traffic flow in Edsa at any time of the day now.

The first point came from a reaction made by my younger brother, Philip L. Mauricio. Here was Philip’s point: The problem of never-ending traffic jams in Edsa comes from the lack of discipline of almost all motorists. Philip (who is now known as “DJ Philip”) hastened to add that many drivers refuse to follow the queue and therefore stay at the tail-end of motorists who are already ahead of them. Instead, they insist on cutting in on their left and on their right, especially in going through overpasses or underpasses. The end result is mayhem that takes hours to straighten out, Philip also said.

The second point came from Vic Endriga, a veteran mediaman and public relations consultant who started being a reporter of the newspaper Daily Express in 1978, at about the same time I became a reporter of the same paper. According to Vic, there is nothing else that can be done by any government official to solve the traffic problem at Edsa on account of the lack of discipline of many Filipinos.

What Vic was apparently referring to was the truth that almost every Filipino nowadays, whether rich or poor, had become truly selfish, thinking, speaking, and doing nothing but the promotion and satisfaction of only their self-interests, never mind if in doing so, they bring ruin and perdition to many others in society.

What Vic actually means is that, Filipinos everywhere in the four corners of the archipelago have become inexorably greedy and remorselessly criminally inclined just to uphold their personal desires and wants, leaving out any possible solution to the problems plaguing the country as a whole. Consequently, all that hapless Filipinos could do is bear and grin it, as it were, since many of them contributed heavily anyway to this malady that all have found themselves in.

The reactions coming from DJ Philip and Vic forcefully bring me back to what I have been repeatedly saying in this column for a long time now, on the continuing financial and economic hardships that have afflicted, and continue to afflict, many of our countrymen: our people really have no one else to blame for their hardships, difficulties, and sufferings but themselves. Because almost all Filipinos now lack self-discipline and are bent on satisfying their own personal desires and nothing else, no one but no one among them think about the greater good anymore.

And because no one thinks about the greater good anymore, our people are collectively forced to become selfish, too, constraining them to become similarly selfish, thinking about nothing except their own interests likewise. Even if their thoughts, speech, and actions are clearly no longer just, no longer patriotic, and are openly rebellious against God’s commands, they continue indulging in them, in a manner that indicates they are even glad in doing them.

If we look around and observe many of those in power today, many of them no longer have qualms in stealing or plundering government money, notwithstanding their having taken an oath to serve country and people faithfully and blamelessly. This is the same reason why there are now many policemen who find nothing wrong in raping persons suspected of having committed crimes, or their relatives. How can we put a stop to al these?

 

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com

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