Fifty-nine years ago, on 10 December 1948, UN member-states including the Philippines adopted and proclaimed UN General Assembly resolution 217A(III), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Seventy-two days ago, on 29 September when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo installed the new PNP chief, unconditional vanguardism of the people against human rights abuse was imposed on the Filipino police outfit.
The PNP should be in good hands, with several of its top-brass officers having had extra exposure on the repercussions of the world’s most gruesome wholesale violations against persons. It could seek the good advice of active one-, two-, or three-star police generals whose personal data sheets detail participation in international-peacekeeping affairs.
There are, in alphabetical order, UN Blue Berets Charlemagne S Alejandrino, Emmanuel R Carta, Raul S Gonzales, Renato DF Heredia, Ronald D Roderos, and Samson R Tucay; and post-Operation Iraqi Freedom multinational-force element Sukarno G Ikbala.
Or it could ask for guidance from retired Police Chief Superintendent Jose O Dalumpines, the PNP Contingent’s first-ever commander. He holds the distinction of shepherding the Filipino police in two different mission areas (Cambodia and Haïti), in three successive operations (UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia, US-led Joint Task Force 190’s Operation Uphold Democracy in Haïti, and UN Mission in Haïti).
Actually, the work of these esteemed gentlemen was to help clean up the genocidal mess in Cambodia, the cutthroat chaos in Haïti, the slash-and-burn disarray in East Timor, and the after-intervention anomie in Iraq. Having done any one of these, though within a limited timeframe, they must know a great deal about the length and width, the depth and breadth of the conflicts that spouted opportunities to inflict acute –if not fatal– physical, mental, emotional, and socio-economic torment on populations.
As the world turns, the Philippines is given the close watch for the systematic curtailment of civil liberties. This should never be the case in a democracy-hoisting society, especially one that front-lined in sounding the universal clarion call to uphold the fundamental freedoms of the animal kingdom’s wisest and most intelligent species.
Granting that the Philippines does not actually host as much barbarity and ruthlessness as olden-times Cambodia, Haïti, East Timor, or Iraq, she has been classified as carrying the propensity. Sadly.
Gladly, the Philippines and her people can lean on a law enforcement agency of thinkers and doers with a solid background in transparency- and democratic-policing, to ponder then pursue sustainable courses of action on this account.
It’s a doable thing, sparing the nation from harsher large-scale external observation and criticism. It’s not impossible either to get into fully recognizing the human being’s inherent dignity, and his or her equal inalienable rights.
Counted and used wisely, blessings on hand can be optimized. This thought needs retelling time and again.
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SHINING THROUGH. Retired Police Chief Superintendent Dalumpines (left) is joined by his subordinates in command of the PNP's first international peace support operation, during the PNP Peacekeeping Force to Cambodia Association's annual general assembly in 2006 (second from left, to right): Carta (now Police Director), Alejandrino (now Police Director), and Roderos (now Police Chief Superintendent).
[Photo by courtesy, PNP Public Information Office.]
