—Carrie Underwood
By Alex P. Vidal
ASKING members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) not to use cellphones so they can’t watch videos and use Facebook while on duty is like burning the house for a rat.
In this age where the use of mobile phones is not only essential but a necessity for everyone—cops or not— living in a civilized world, preventing the men and women in uniform from using their cellphones while they are away from home and the headquarters may not be a wise move.
If PNP chief General Rommel Marbil was only against police personnel using the social media in their mobile phones while performing their job, the least he could have done was to ask them to log out from their social media accounts while on duty.
Logging out from any social media account may be a win-win solution for General Marbil and his personnel instead of totally separating the cops from the gadgets they have loved to carry just like their issued firearms.
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Marbil should have allowed them to bring their cellphones wherever they go so their station commanders and families could reach them in case there were urgent calls and emergency.
Fabrice Grinda said, “The most important impact on society and the world is the cell phone. Cell phones have actually been one of the primary drivers in productivity improvements.”
Cops aren’t stupid to watch TikTok and scroll their social media accounts up and down or watch on Youtube the replay of Vice Ganda’s show while they are chasing a robbery suspect or raiding a gunrunner’s house.
Plain and simple common sense. The cops are professionals. Let’s not insult their intelligence.
They can always log in back after duty—especially if they can’t resist the itch to “like” their friends’ posts or post something in their accounts like what other normal people with social media accounts do nowadays.
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When they hang their uniforms temporarily after duty and go home to their families, cops are just like you and me when they’re not putting cuffs on the criminal’s hands or arresting the lawbreakers: they are enjoying life and appreciating the latest technology as human beings.
They are part and parcel of the modern society embroiled in the latest fad: the social media.
They also have feelings and thoughts; we can’t, or no authority for that matter should separate them from reality and the mainstream.
Under General Marbil’s order, Pinoy cops are now like living in the sixties, seventies and early eighties. Going backwards.
While waiting for the criminals in the streets or patrolling in the communities, they will have to bring plenty of chewing gums and pull more hairs under their chin to fight off boredom.
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BURNED. During the Middle Ages, if you were guilty of bestiality, you would be burned at stake, along with the other party of your crime.
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(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
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