Human rights and the police

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor ERIC T. LORETIZO Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The Philippine National Police has reportedly vowed that they will uphold human rights as they carry out their mission of enforcing the law. At the same time, their spokesperson was also quoted as saying that utmost respect for human rights is a matter of policy for the police organization.

That is nice to listen to, in the light of reports that the police are always found in the top of the lists of human rights violators in this country. This is very disturbing, because this is the organization that people are supposed to look up to to protect and defend them. But the times have changed so much since the time when that was the image they had among the citizens. Today, one can tell how the members of this organization - with some exceptions, of course - are perceived by the people in the humorless jokes they tell about their encounters with the police, or what others have told them about their own.

The last few weeks have again brought out a lot of justifications for this unflattering picture of the country's police. The issuance by the President of the infamous Proclamation No. 1017 seemed to have brought out again the worst picture of the police, especially from the view of the media. Among the first acts of the police then - which has since been disowned by their civilian heads - was to intrude into a newspaper office, intimidating its staff and, in consequence, the rest of the media community in the country.

Now the Philippine National Police, short of admitting its blunders in its zeal in implementing the abominable 1017, is trying to mend its fences by issuing statements and explanations on the difficulties and hazards of the job which, they say, often involve situations that fall within "the vague parameters of human right violations." Now, they stress, their basic training includes human rights and that they strictly observe Police Operational Procedures. For the citizenry, however, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.*