Starving the police,
fattening the military

We know where the Army is coming from. It has rejected calls to stop deploying soldiers in city slums, saying the exercise a) provides the soldiers a learning opportunity on how to deal with civilians in preparation for deployment abroad as UN peacekeepers and locally in insurgency-troubled areas and b) help secure the safety of the people in their homes and in their communities.

Additionally, the military leadership claims the deployment deters the New People’s Army from building support bases and cripples the operations of rebels where they have already established their presence. That militants end up as targets is considered by the military as falling within its mandate. The militants may be unarmed. They may be pursuing political activities enjoying full constitutional protection. But they are dumped with the armed rebels just the same.

As we said, we know where the military is coming from. But has the political leadership thought through the consequences of fielding soldiers in the city as ersatz peacekeepers?

The PNP has been rather silent about the urban deployment. We presume, however, that the police are not exactly flattered by the hijacking by the military of its peacekeeping and law enforcement functions.

We remember one military official saying on television that squatters welcome his men as protectors from bums, petty gangsters and syndicated criminals. He was, in effect, saying the police are not doing their job.

The Arroyo administration has seen the complete return of the counter-insurgency campaign to the military. This was a reversal of the efforts starting from the time of Cory Aquino to slowly shift the burden of counter-insurgency to the PNP.

The reason offered was that the PNP was under-strength, ill-equipped, and inadequately trained. That the AFP was not any much better off was glossed over.

Now the camel has taken over the tent. And the resources that ought to have been spent on improving the capability of the PNP are now being showered on the AFP.

Proof? There’s the proposed budget. Billions are being allotted for AFP modernization. The PNP proposed budget, in contrast, hardly has any allotment for capital expenditures. It doesn’t even have guns for every policeman. Its appropriation is almost totally earmarked for salaries and operating expenses.

The PNP’s mission is to maintain peace and order by enforcing the law. That means its job is to secure a condition where the disgruntled do not join the NPA because of their grievances. With the AFP in command, the focus is on killing the rebels without taking into account where the new rebel recruits are coming from and why.