EDITORIAL
Around two years ago, The Daily Chronicle columnist Jenni Munar had the rightfully annoying experience of being pushed aside in an elevator by a policeman wearing the Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG) uniform because she was in the way of a Chinese businessman presumably a bigwig in the POGO industry. The cop wanted his boss to exit the elevator door ahead of Jenny, and for that the pretty lady, and a Filipino, deserved a shove. The policeman was either assigned or moonlighting as bodyguard of the Chinese VIP, a foreigner.
Jenni said the experience was doubly vexatious because as a member of the Board of Trustees of Philippine Red Cross, she was on many occasion called upon for the blood transfusion needs of the country’s policemen and soldiers who are wounded in battle, also the needs of their family members, and just about any Filipino who look up to the Philippine Red Cross for assistance.
She, too, is a loyal supporter of the government, whether it be the Arroyo, the Duterte, or the Marcos administration. And as Jenni is pro-government, she dutifully pays her taxes, personal income tax and business taxes—she pays them on time. And funds from these taxes go to the government coffers to pay for the salaries of these cops who will just push her arrogantly to make space for their Chinese VIP boss!
Jenni had good reason to complain to her friends on this.
We fast forward to two more years and what do we see?
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil attended an official function in a Metro Manila hotel, and what did he see? A Chinese man who looked like a VIP being escorted by one of Marbil’s cops wearing the uniform of the Police Security and Protection Group. The rebarbatively unpalatable scene was enough for General Marbil to order the recall of all police officers serving as private bodyguards of very important persons. (And probably to make an inventory, issue new guidelines, and unleash them again for another moonlighting assignment in the near future?)
Going by the law and PNP procedures, the PSPG is the only PNP unit authorized to provide security to individuals.
The Philippine Star correctly observes: “The person (applying for protection) must face a verified threat to his or her safety. The person must apply in writing for this special protection, explaining the reason for the request. The PNP then validates whether the threat is genuine and merits special police protection.
“Claims of threats to personal safety, however, can be and has been exaggerated. Too many cops are assigned as the personal bodyguards of government officials including councilors and barangay captains, wealthy or influential private individuals, and anyone who can pay for special police protection including – as recent developments have shown – Chinese employees of Philippine offshore gaming operator firms. POGOs reportedly offer high pay to moonlighting cops and soldiers, who even serve as drivers of the Chinese employers.”
This business of employing policemen as bodyguards for VIPs has become a convenient racket for senior police officials who authorize these assignments. Any abuse of this power to assign policemen may be traced back to the intention of these officials to line their own pockets, for how else can the VIPs convince them that the simple application for personal security is meritorious?
And one thing more: shouldn’t the granting of personal security be given to Filipinos, who are after all the taxpayers and thus the employers of all the members of the PNP?
We understand the need to secure top government officials, from the President down to the mayors of municipalities and cities. But this, too, should have a limit, for more and more Filipinos need the services of policemen as our streets have become risky to walk or drive on, and our homes, too, are not well secured.
General Marbil has a gargantuan task to do here, and we hope he will prove to be up to it.
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