Skip to main content

"Elite" Cry-Babies?

I CANNOT IMAGINE how an operative of the Special Counter-Insurgency Operations Unit (SCOU), when caught by insurgents and subjective to the worse torture imaginable, can ever survive with their mental faculties intact.

But that's exactly what's going to happen if the recent products of SCOU Training cry foul, or more specifically 'hazing,' when they are subjected to the hard realities of law enforcent that handles counterinsurgency operations. Operatives must be physically hard and mentally sturdy to survive the prospect of getting captured without squelling reserved information to the enemy.

I am disappointed to hear that the recent batch of SCOUT trainees considered their physical ordeals during training as 'hazing.' Have they entertained the thought that they were in Camp Ceferino Genovia in Barangay Bahay for an exotic 45-day vacation? If they cannot endure physical pain during training, they must ship out because real life counterinsurgency work will not get better. That is if they plan to be the competent operatives they should be.

From the reports coming out, even the three assistant trainers complained on appeared to be unsure that what they did was valid for the purpose of preparing police officers for the role. They apparently shied away from admitting that they did inflict physical pain during the training. If they did, so what? Their superiors know better than to fault them for doing their jobs.

Of course these trainers may have failed somehow in certain aspects, particularly that of creativity. They should have let these trainees watch special forces movies show rugged and intense physical demands of training in America's elite soldiers. Perhaps this way the trainees will realize that they are babies compared to these American soldiers.

There is a place for shouting 'hazing' when receiving physical punishments. The place is university education in the context of fraternity initiation rites. Not the SCOUT regimen that are intented to make them tough enforcers of law.

At the end of the day, these trainees chose voluntarily to join this batch of SCOUT trainees. Instead of shouting foul, they should be mature enough to assess their personal resources to withstand the demand of elite training. Otherwise, they should seek other avenues of their unspent free time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Separatist Tactic Unraveled

A RECENT INCIDENT in Davao City revealed the sneaky tactic that Muslim separatists use in claiming more and more lands in Mindanao as "their ancestral" land. Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered on November 17 members of the Moro National Liberation Front-National Elite Security Unit to vacate areas in Sitio Agdao, Talomo and Mintal, which they claim as a land of their ancestors. True to form they have started harrassing those who are living there in order to have the place for themselves. This was not the first time in Mindanao. (By God, even nations around the world had similar problems with creeping Muslim communities amidst them that can become breeding nests for terrorist operatives.) Provinces like the Zamboangas also noted this kind of creeping dominion; although in certain areas families and relatives of separatists did the subtle presence in certain areas where they later would show no plan to leave. Good that in Davao City they  have a Dutert...

Gifts of Discounts

SECTION 13 of the New Code of Philippine Judicial Conduct (27 April 2004) stated: Judges and members of their families shall neither ask for nor receive any gift, bequest, loan, or favor in relation to anything done or to be done or omitted to be done by him or her in connection with the performance of judicial duties. Its annotation explains that: Public officials and employees shall not solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of money value from any person in the course of their official duties or in connection with any operation being regulated by, or any transaction which may be affected by the functions of their office." The key phrase here is--"in the course of their official duties." It means that as long as a judge remains a judge of Philippine courts, this Code applies, prohibiting any receipt, directly or indirectly, from any person. The question then is: Is a discount a gift? ...