In a quite alarming series of violent crimes committed by no less than members of the Philippine National Police in the past few weeks, Rep. Winston Castelo expressed dismay and fear that in this emerging scenario, the question to be asked would then be on “who will police the Police”?
Thus, in a statement, the QC solon wonders why a 19th century old worldview should be adopted by the PNP since such a doctrinal theme should have no place in our particular culture of violence.
“The long list of violent and serious offenses and still counting are too worrisome to even imagine. Our police personnel and officers are invariably now involved in various crimes like rape, abduction, kidnapping, gun-for-hire, robbery, frustrated homicide, murder, summary execution, drug use and more to the extent that no amount of disciplinary action especially a rather inappropriate 3-strike policy can be a deterrent to their commissions”, Castelo strongly argued.
According to the lawmaker, this is not even the time to make a lot of proposals to improve the PNP when more immediate courses of action are well-within the prerogative of the Director General. “Let not the top echelon of the police hierarchy start finding for scapegoats, alibis, and cast the blame on already prevailing conditions but rather, the chief PNP must act and act well”, Castelo said.
“This 3-strike policy connotes that our moral and legal environment will allow for habitual or repeat offenders of the police corps to create havoc upon persons, properties, and institutions”, the congressman strongly pointed out. And he adds, “actually when we apply this policy, we are promoting deferred punishment akin to a baseball game when you strike out at the third time which cannot apply in real world situations”.
Hence, the member of the House Committee on Justice is thinking of proposing to strike down this inappropriate 3-strike policy that the PNP still subscribes to this day. “For example, if we let Police Officer A commit murder as first violent offense, and then again, let him commit rape on his second violent offense, then even if he were to commit robbery as third offense, the sentence or conviction that will be imposed upon him no longer really counts”, Castelo added.
“What we need is, at the end of the day, a no nonsense – 1-strike policy that would reflect the PNP leadership’s firm resolve to weed out the organization of scalawags. Certainly, a total overhaul of PNP’s faulty recruitment system is always the culprit to start with”, he said. 30
