Phil. Nat'l Police Fears to go Beyond Visual Search

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Resource Speaker of Colonels – Political columnist Mortz C. Ortigoza (Wearing t-shirt and this Blog's administrator) explained to the colonels and chiefs of police of Pangasinan the modes of searching and seizing illegal objects without the benefit of a search warrant inside the vehicles. He was invited recently in Dagupan City, as an accidental resource speaker, by OIC Provincial Director Senior Superintendent Marlou Chan who wanted to brainstorm with his officers Ortigoza’s series of columns on searches and checkpoints in the humongous province.

This columnist, who used to preside over media men in their Kuatro-Kantos sessions, became an accidental resource speaker in a command conference composed of police colonels and majors of the Pangasinan Police Office and chiefs of police where OIC Provincial Director Marlou Chan asked them to brainstorm my observation on my previous columns on the mode of searching vehicles and the predictability of checkpoints. I wrote before that Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil (2nd District, Pangasinan) agreed with my observation that police men manning checkpoints should not be tied on visual search because criminals make them a laughing stock. Bataoil said peace officers worth their salt should use judgment call on how to search and seize illegal objects hidden inside the cars or motorcycles without the benefit of search warrant. He agreed with what I wrote that “consent” among motorists is enough to open their trunks and compartments as a lawful means to search vehicles without a search warrant. Colonel Chan and deputy provincial director Lt. Colonel Sison the two diminishing numbers of PMAyers (PMA last production of PC, the precursor of the PNP) was in 1992) at the Philipine National Police who are torn by the “sea” of Cavite graduates (Philippine National Police Academy like the snappy 6 –foot two- inch Dagupan City chief Lt. Colonels Cris Abrahano and Rodolfo Castro) and ROTC graduates like UPang’s (University of Pangasinan) pride Lt. Colonel Poly Cayabyab have a good time discussing with this writer (a humble graduate of MPSB or Mababang Paaralan ng San Andres Bukid) the nuances of what is the significance of a checkpoint and “judgment call”. Lt. Colonel Sison said search warrant is not necessary anymore when there is hostility inside the car like “nag-aaway na sila duon.”. Chan objected to the observation of his fellow Cavalier because hostility inside the car is already too obvious for the PNP to pacify by entering the car without the warrant. He asked his subordinates to explore the judgment call (e.g motorists acting nervously) Bataoil, a former two-star police general, espoused. Chan said being nervous could mean the motorist is hiding something illegal or he is being nervous because he fears the police would “plant” something illegal in case he opens his car or motorcycle.

STOP AND FRISK LOWER GUN RELATED VIOLENCE

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA, MPA

Political observers opined that barangay (village) election in the Philippines is more intense emotionally than the provincial and municipal elections in the May 13 polls this year.
 The protagonists in the village elections, they said, have more personal ax to grind against each other than their counterparts in May 13.

 There is this perception that killings through the use of guns particularly among political rivals and their supporters in this poll could eclipse those numbers of corpses in the May 13 electoral derby.
 Barangay election is fast approaching. It would be held on October 28 this year.

A police officer cautiously implement the Stop and Frisk or the 
Terry Frisk to individuals he suspected to possess illegal objects
 like gun. This mode of search and seizure has been sanctioned
 by jurisprudence as necessary to put the lives of the police out 
of danger.

 PNP incorporates Stop and Frisk
 Since this writer was “flattered” by the disclosure of Pangasinan Police Director Senior Superintendent Marlou Chan that his article titled “Police Stop and Frisk help Lower Shooting Incidents “(that compared shooting incidents last year in the 8.5 million populated New York City that claimed 450 lives versus the 3 million populated thriving gun-for hire province Pangasinan where killers snapped out 249 lives in the same year (you can accessed it at http://wwwmortzcortigoza.blogspot.com/2013/08/polices-stop-and-frisk-help-lower.html ) ) has been integrated in the Philippine National Police’s pilot project in Malasiqui town.
 Police Regional Director Ricardo Marquez lauded recently on TV Chan and the provincial police rising star Lieutenant Colonel Rodolfo Castro (lately reassigned as chief of police of another "Tombstone" City  San Carlos) whose Lennon-McCarthy collaboration in the Squad Patrol 101 (Read: Police visibility, check point, etc.)  resulted in a zero shooting incident since the project’s inception recently.
 The pronouncement of General Marquez on TV was refreshing since the 73 villages’ strong town has been a lair of hired killers according to the former chief of police there.
“Bawat barangay dito may hired killer (Every village here has hired killer),” he told me over a cup of coffee in his office.

Police Stop and Frisk Help Lower Shooting Incidents

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA



Despite the brouhahas spawned by the Stop and Frisk method by policemen in the cities of Philadelphia and New York, Filipino policemen who satisfied themselves to visual search can look how effective this method in deterring crimes like shooting incidents .
 Stop and Frisk is a type of limited search when police confront a suspicious person in an effort to prevent a crime from taking place. The police frisk (pat down) the person for weapons and questions him.
 According to the recent column of Dick Morris at DickMorris.com titled “ Stop And Frisk Decision Based On Tortured Reading Of The Constitution” the spate of crimes in the cities of New York ( 8.5 million population and Philadelphia (1.5 million population:) dwindled with 450 homicides and 334 homicides last year respectively.
 “The ability to stop and frisk men lingering on street corners in the middle of the night in high drug and crime areas has played a key element in reducing the murder rate.
 Particularly in concert with New York’s mandatory minimum three year sentence for possession of an unlicensed, loaded firearm within the city, the law has forced guns off the street and driven down the murder rate appreciably.
 To measure the impact of the stop and frisk and mandatory minimum gun sentence laws, compare New York with Philadelphia. Both have lots of poverty — 21% in New York and 25% in Philadelphia. The per capita police presence in each place is comparable, “ Morris, a former Bill Clinton’s adviser, and Republican strategist, said.
***

 “Imagine 450 shooting incidents in a population of 8.5 million in New York City versus the wild-west gun- for-hire Pangasinan with less than three million people, and we’re talking about New York as a city and not as a province.