‘Well done, Mr. Razon. And welcome Mr. Verzosa.’
PNP chief Avelino Razon is turning
over the baton today to Jesus Verzosa without fuss. Just the usual turnover
ceremonies to be presided by Gloria Arroyo immediately after her arrival from a
week-long visit to the United States. No controversies. That’s how changes of
command ought to be. Chiefs come and go; the institution carries on.
A similar thing happened when Alexander Yano became AFP chief
of staff. No attempts by other aspirants to appeal to "padrinos" in Palace, at
least nothing we have heard of. Hopefully, we are now seeing the growing
maturity of the uniformed services.
Razon leaves a PNP saddled with the usual problems. Lack of
policemen; inadequate equipment, including service firearms, communication
equipment and vehicles; and low pay and meager benefits. It all boils down to
lack of money, which is not about to be corrected soon given the other equally
pressing demands on the Treasury.
The PNP had to make do with available resources. Razon, given
the constraints, has delivered.
Criminality has slightly decreased, which we suppose is
achievement enough given the worsening economic situation. The key is Razon’s
policy of putting more men and women on the streets and pouring most of the
PNP’s resources into the field.
There has also been a noticeable improvement in the police’s
observance of human rights. There have been less incidents of torture and
disappearances. The blot on this score is the abduction of Jun Lozada at the
airport. But given the propensity of Malacañang to resist all efforts at
uncovering the truth behind each and every case of thievery, of which the $239
million broadband deal was only the latest, it is probably a comfort that there
have been not more Lozadas.
On the anti-terrorism front, there have been no large-scale
attacks mounted against civilians. There have been the occasional bombing
attempts in Mindanao. A few have succeeded, but many more have been thwarted by
the police. Expecting the police to put an end to terror acts is probably
wishful thinking given that these are rooted in an underlying insurgency.
On the counter-insurgency front, the 2010 deadline for the
AFP and the PNP to rout the communist rebellion is sure to be missed. There also
appears to be no early resolution of the armed secessionist movement in the
South.
The AFP and the PNP, however, cannot be expected to solve a
fundamentally political problem, more so given the erosion of people’s trust in
the Gloria administration.
While its components in the long run cannot rise above the
level of this corrupt and incompetent administration, at least the PNP is trying
and, at times, succeeding in doing so.
Well done, Mr. Razon. And welcome Mr. Verzosa.
