The name Nicolas V. Pacifico is familiar to historians and active journalists in the Commonwealth era. A migrant from Bantayan, Cebu, he was a reporter for the Manila-based Tribune and authored the book ‘Builders of Davao.’ As a correspondent, he was the first to report the sighting of an unknown naval flotilla, suspected to be Japanese, off the waters of Malita, Davao Occidental, in 1938 in the gulf of Davao.
Pacifico’s letter dated September 21, 1933, at a time when Captain Elias Dioquino was head of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) in the district, exposed the demoralization in the Davao police force “due to incompetence and lack of moral sense of duty,” specifically citing the corruption that was gnawing at the remaining credibility of the police vice squad.
His communication, blunt and straightforward, was also addressed to Davao governor Juan A. Sarenas and municipal president (mayor) Bruno Gempesaw, with a complimentary ending of hope that the town (just four years away from becoming a city), would heal by overhauling the entire police force. In full, the letter reads:
“Brushing aside all tendencies of vindictiveness and all traces of grudge, ill-feeling, or call it what you may, but placing above all the welfare of this fast-growing community, I am addressing to you this letter with all sincerity, open frankness and blunt candidness.
“The demoralization of the Davao police force is undermining the moral fabric of Davao. I hold communion with the denizens of the underworld and I found that there are policemen who ought to be eliminated from the police rooster due to incompetence and lack of moral sense of duty.
“I know you are democratic and plastic, responsive to suggestion and amenable to reason. As a humble citizen, therefore, of this land of my adoption, I suggest the overhauling of the vice squad of the Davao police force. There is no need of producing tangible proofs to warrant the overhauling.
“Just stay at street corners and listed to the malediction tarnished on the brow of the vice squad and you will be morally convinced that there is a vital need of changing the old order of things.
“I know that the Davao force can never reach the parvenu of maximum efficiency. That is verily a Utopian dream. But what I desire is to overhaul it to such an extent as to reduce the inefficiency to a minimum.
“The time calls for prompt action, conscientious getting down to brass tacks, not vacillation, not in decision.
“The vice squad of the Davao police force must be overhauled.”
Pacifico’s observation still rings to this day. Aside from a number of cops wallowing in corruption despite the delivery of better take-home pay, the social malady of extortion cascades to the deputized traffic enforcers who always find creative interpretations as bases for issuing a violation ticket to perplexed and, at times, grumbling drivers.
Corruption in the streets come in various forms, from violating the strict rule of requiring the law enforcer to approach the driver from the vehicle’s window to inspecting a driver’s license for bills tucked inside for the traffic guy to pull out as a ‘negotiation fee.’
There is a ray of hope, though, the corrupt system can finally be checked. In Metro Manila, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) had begun issuing automated tickets to traffic wrongdoers as part of its drive towards digitalization and the campaign to check bribery on the roads.
But how about the fixers who swarm the LTO premises, inside and out?
