The image of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is far from pristine. With stories of corrupt and unethical police officers and army officials in the media, the PNP and AFP may find it difficult to recover from their reputation slump. The recent scandal involving former PNP Comptroller Eliseo de La Paz and his undeclared Euros have only served to further tarnish law-enforcers in the eyes of Filipinos, especially the Philippine media.

To try to put their officers in a more positive light, the PNP implemented several gimmicks. Along EDSA, in front of Camp Crame, the PNP put up a billboard with pictures of police helping citizens in distress. Recently, the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) reported that the National Capital Region Police Office will deploy over 300 “Santa cops” or officers dressed in Santa Claus costumes to “shopping malls in the metropolis starting next month until January next year.” However, these public relations tactics are outweighed by the sordid stories that saturate the media.

The PNP's reputation is such that “jokes” from them are understood as threats by reporters used to treading a knife's edge in dealing with police. In 2007, for example, PDI reporter Marlon Ramos complained that Senior Supt. Aaron Fidel, head of the directorial staff of Police Regional Office-Calabarzon, threatened to have him “ambushed.” The official denied the reporter's claim, saying it was a harmless joke.

A memo released last week by PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa barring access to police blotters didn't improve them in the eyes of reporters covering the police beat, either. The PNP tried to repair its mistake by conducting consultative talks with media groups, resulting in a revision of the order.

Instead of no access to the police log, there will now be two blotters in police stations: a “confidential” blotter for cases such as those involving women and children, with information that will selectively be released to the media, and the other for less “sensitive” crimes, the Manila Bulletin reported.

The AFP is not exempt from public relations dilemmas, either. The recent “harassment” of a radio reporter in Cotabato City by an Army colonel led the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) to declare Lt. Col. John Oswald Bucu “persona non grata.”

Bucu allegedly called Loreto “Lhoy” Rosario, a reporter from Catholic Church-run radio dxMS, an “intruder” during his coverage of “a fire in a military camp in Shariff Kabunsuan province” on Oct. 31, PDI said. Bucu is also said to have taken Rosario's press card and mobile phones.

On Nov. 6, the AFP “ordered an investigation” into the incident, GMA News reported. Bucu has apologized to the reporter but maintained that Rosario had intruded into the camp. “If not for [Bucu],” GMA said, sentries could have “shot the journalist.”

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals (CA) has “sustained its earlier decision ordering the AFP to open four of its camps for inspection by relatives of two missing alleged leaders of the New People's Army in Pampanga,” the Manila Times reported. The motion for reconsideration filed by the AFP and PNP was dismissed by the CA's Fifth Decision, which was “penned by Associate Justice Martin Villarama, Jr.”

The relatives of Romulo Robiños and Ryan Supan, who were “suspected to be NPA leaders in Pampanga,” alleged that “four armed men wearing military uniforms” abducted the two “from Robiños' house in Barangay Tabon, Angeles City, Pampanga” on November 17, 2006, the Manila Times said.

Photo: “Makeup Brush” by annia316, taken from Flickr.com. Licensed under Creative Commons license number BY-2.0-DEED.EN.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."