Some Morons and Barbaric from QCPD and a Confused NCRPO Chief
Makes a Sad Philippine Society
By: Edison Gatioan
In the midst of the circus going around the alleged suicide of Ted Failon’s wife, the QCPD policemen suddenly let out of its moron and barbaric members to teach us a good lesson on warrant less arrest and police brutality. The shameless show of force and wanton disregard of human rights only exposed how pig-headed some of our police officers can be. The arrest of the victim’s relatives and the house helpers without warrant is deplorable and unacceptable in a civilized and democratic society.
If the police involved in the series of warrant less arrests that followed the alleged suicide incident can justify their action as constitutional, then I will say to the professors of Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure that shame on them for not knowing their law better than those thugs in uniform.
Equally distressful is the confusion shown by the NCRPO Chief, when he lamented that ABS CBN highlighted more on the abuses of the police instead of the case involving the suspicious “suicide incident”. Let me remind the good officer that while the effort of the police to investigate the truth behind the incident deserves commendation, the issue has been overshadowed by a more important issue, RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS and RULE OF LAW.
Assuming for the sake of argument that ABS CBN is more interested in protecting Mr. Failon (which my malicious mind also suspect), or even if Mr. Failon may be guilty as the police appears to suspect, the issue is too insignificant compared to the SERIOUS INJURY inflicted against the public with the shameless and wanton disregard of human rights and rule of law by the police officers concern. This is not to say that we should let Mr. Failon off the hook, for God’s sake, if he is guilty, he should be thrown to jail. But due process must be afforded him not because he is a TV personality, but because a civilized society ought to observe due process to the mighty as well as to the weak. This is expressly mandated by the Filipino people in our Constitution. To add insult to injury not only to the more than 90 million Filipinos, but to humanity itself, they did it in front of news cameras.
Hah! If human rights violation committed by our very “protector”, in front of TV cameras at that, does not deserve more attention than the interest of running after a possible suspect, then the priority of the good officer must be fundamentally defective. It is very unfortunate for this writer to criticize a good and well respected officer in the person of Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales, but this is not about his character. This is about his bias favoring professional achievement against the more fundamental issue of respect for human rights. If this represents the general manner by which our police officers think, oh Holy God, please bless us by blessing our Police officers with the ability to think and act right.
Brothers and sisters in this sad Philippine society, I urge you then to be mindful of your rights, and express it in unequivocal term, lest we wake up one day without it.
