Young pips, watch out. If you are commuting and do not want to end up at the PNP Thief and Robbery Section (TRS), make sure you have the receipts of the valuables in your bag like a laptop, or maybe a camera or even cell phone. And, do not insist to know the name of the officer who searches your bag even if he does not have a badge, or, even if you fear he might leave a pack of shabu inside ... If you do, that will be arrogance.
That's what happened to our son, Victor, last night at past around 11 p.m. After a late evening work at their office in Ayala he accompanied his girlfriend to her workplace at a call center at the IT Park... He then took two jeepney rides home to Tisa . They were stopped at the Shell station at Banawa by a police team who were not in proper uniform and did not have nameplates except for the leader who had a badge. Only the male passengers were asked to go down for inspection (there goes the number of gender sensitivity workshops we conducted with the police). Like the others, Victor was asked to open his bag. Remembering what happened to his cousin Jason weeks ago in a similar inspection when they were asked to get out of the taxi and later shown a pack of shabu supposedly from their seat, Victor asked for the name of the police officer before he opens his bag. The officer police considered this arrogance. He never gave his name; only the woman Officer identified herself as Captain Recla. One of them even suggested "gikan pa tingali na'g rally." (Human Security Act?)
For insisting to know the name of the police officer who searched his bag, he was asked for proof of ownership of his laptop. He couldn't show one. That laptop is new, bought last June when he was on training in the US and the receipt was sent online, which can be downloaded in the files. Besides, who would think of carrying a receipt for something ones uses at work everyday? He had shown them his office ID. If they used their common sense, it would have occurred to them that a laptop was a logical tool for a Computer Engineer just like a gun is for a police officer instead of arresting him and hauling him to TRS Police Station at Gorordo without reading him his rights (as in the TV). On the way, one of them asked him his name, where he was going, etc. When they later found out that he was Bimbo's son, one of them said "ato nalang ni husayon".
Some points: What if they did not know that he was Bimbo's son; would they have allowed him to go home? Or would he have stayed in one of those dungeon-like rooms like his cousin weeks ago? I feel sad because when names and relations matter in the application of the law ... this means rule of law is not the rule, it is whom you know.
I have always tried to teach my kids to face life by themselves, to be vigilant on their rights like asking the name of the people in the offices they deal with, including the police. And now, this capacity to take care of oneself is defined as arrogance.
At Lihok Pilipina we see the effect on adults of trauma experienced in childhood. I just hope this incident does not create trauma in my son... to make him stop bringing his girlfriend to her workplace before he comes home... or worse... losing trust in the enforcers. I heard that one of the boys who were jailed with his cousin for "arrogance" because they have insisted on knowing what their violation was, now fears to go home by himself and calls home after his 9 p.m. class.
We each have our part to do in this world ... I just hope the enforcers of the law can be more sensitive and transparent with their own protocols. You want trust, show trustworthiness. One can't trust someone who hides his identity in the performance of a public duty. UNLESS, enforcers think they are as powerful as the Dark Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter story, "the one who can't be named".
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Tessie Banaynal Fernandez
Tessie Banaynal Fernandez
Lihok Pilipina
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