19 Oct Local Police to be Investigated Over ‘Deserted’ Police Station
The Issue
Image Source | Twitter.com
Now, here’s one news item that won’t surprise a lot of people, and something worth an opinion at that.
Last week, local news reporters pounced on a news item brought to attention by DXCC radio reporter Ronde Alicaya. In his radio report, he was supposed to gather news from the APB (All-Police Bulletin) blotter of Police Station 4 in Barangay Carmen last Wednesday at around 3:00 a.m. The reporter however, was surprised to find the police station deserted. Worse than his discovery, there were two other persons at that time attempting to get police assistance.
According to police city director Senior Supt. Faro Antonio Olaguera, if there is probable cause after summary investigations, the station’s commander, deputy commander, and the whole station are liable for hot water, this being neglect of duty. The Carmen station commander is Chief Inspector Joepet Baldonado Paglinawan and the deputy is Inspector Stephen Benbian Latar. Supposedly, there should have been at least 5 policemen on duty on that particular early morning.
In My Opinion
To be realistic, this is not surprising, because all you need to do is to go around all the city’s police stations and sub-stations and count the number of deserted police stations at any given early morning or with only a single policeman manning the so-called duty desk.
In fact, this writer has had a couple of personal experiences in the past. In 2009, while doing some investigative reporting, this writer needed to inquire from the Divisoria Police Precinct at that time having its temporary office at the old building in front of McDonald’s. On entering the precinct at around 4:00 p.m., the place was deserted. Thinking that perhaps the duty desk officer was in the comfort room, this writer waited around 15 minutes. No police personnel turned up.
On another occasion in 2011, this writer had an altercation with a drunken couple in Bulua. Needing to report the incident, this writer rushed to the Bulua Police Precinct with the drunken couple following suit. On entering the precinct, the whole place was deserted. After waiting for around 30 minutes and continuing to argue with the drunken couple, a policewoman supposedly manning the Women’s Desk entered the precinct. However, after hearing this writer’s complaint, the policewoman proceeded to scold all of us and almost threw us out of the station. Even when protesting that this writer wasn’t even drinking, said policewoman continued hurling invectives at us.
To add flavor to our police force’s already inept nature, we seem to have a bad habit of putting up flimsy police sub-stations all around the city, the purpose of which is to supposedly maximize police visibility. You only need to pass by that sub-station near Ororama on J.R. Borja Street, the sub-station just outside SSS in Carmen, or the sub-station on Corrales Avenue on any given early morning to find the place deserted.
In Japan and Thailand, the ratio of policeman-to-people is around 1 policeman for every 100 persons. In the Philippines the ratio is 1 policeman for every 600 persons. So our government solves this problem by putting up more sub-stations or splitting up precincts instead of ramping up police recruitment or improving the system of training and handling of police personnel in order to lessen graft and corruption. So for now and in the near future, don’t expect your local police station to be always manned, or that desk duty sergeant is probably under the desk sleeping on duty.
Note: Every now and then aboutcagayandeoro.com and its parent company LogicBase Interactive LLC comes out with an opinion column to address a specific issue that affects the whole city as well as the region. The opinions, ideas, and even facts stated in the column however, do not necessarily reflect the views of the website and the company.
No Comments