This is the sixth in this ongoing series for practical people, both Filipino and foreign who care about the country of the Philippines and would like to do something, within their own means and power, to make it a better place.

I’d like to report some good news, too.  I have a source for this book … although I still haven’t made my much looked forward to meeting with the author happen yet.  But if any of you want your own copy or want a copy to give as birthday, Christmas or passalubong, just let me know here and we’ll work something out.  I’ll sell it at the current retail price … I’m not in this to make a profit and I can ship it virtually anywhere in the world.  Personally I have along list of pamamkins, high school and college graduates (and in some cases their parents) who are getting the book as a gift real soon now.

One thing that is particularly noticeable to a foreigners is that there are an awful lot of police agencies in the Philippines.  There’s a Philippine National Police service … much like an arm of the military .. academy graduate officers, generals at the top, regional and provincial directors, standardized uniforms, special units and a lot of what one would expect from the USA if we had a national police force.

There are also the other trappings of enforcement and compliance most developed countries have … a national Bureau of Investigation (similar in many ways to the US FBI), drug enforcement agencies, customs and immigration enforcement officers and so on.

We also have some unique hierarchies here in the Metro Manila area … there is a Metro Manila Development Agency which has it’s own extensive police force (similar in some ways to the Port of New York Authority back in the US) and various other traffic and police agencies I am not aware of yet.

On the local level the Philippines has something quite unique to most foreigners … from little villages to large cities,virtually every dwelling and business lies within a barangay, governed by a locally elected barangay captain and most with their own local patrols often know as the ‘tanod’.  These barangay’s are a legal political structure … local government at the lowest level, but unique to anything I have seen before … although the offices are elective and sometimes even highly contested, they are by rule of law apolitical.  The people running for barangay captain, for example, can’t display partisan signs and run as candidates of any of the major political parties.  Totally different to a boy like me who grew up in Hudson County, New Jersey back in the Boss Hague days when every local political ward (the closest US equivalent to a barangay I think) was connected from the lowest ward heeler to the office of the President of the country … or so folks would say.

It’s interesting, to say the least.  But I’m rambling.  A a foreigner or a Filipino it really doesn’t matter whose authority caused the guy or gal in uniform to be wearing it …but the rule of law of any civilized nation demands that we give them respect … respect for the uniform and position, regardless of what we think of the individual in the uniform.

These days very few of my fellow Americans have ever served in the military, and many are even a tad “military hostile” … except when they want the military to rush in and save their backside, or shot somebody because ‘the majority’ has determined that a certain religion or country of origin as ‘dangerous’ to the majority’.

In many ways I suppose this de-emphasis on military service is a good thing, perhaps the normal progression of a free nation.  I dunno, I’m still an old soldier myself, but my mind is open enough for other points of view.

In my short time her in the Philippines I notice a very similar attitude in many Filipinos.  Even people who are dirt poor and need a career badly seldom talk about making the military a career.  The best and brightest in schools all head for the bar exam or scientific pursuits, I almost never hear of anyone thinking about making the military a career, and just as I see in the US, many Filipinos consider the military worth having round to perpetuate the war in Mindanao, but no closer to the ‘civilized’ part of the country.

One thing the military did teach me that has been worthwhile all my life … to get respect, you must give respect.  When you are a lower-ranking person … military or civilian … that concept may be a little difficult to comprehend, but later, as you gain experience and rise to your proper station in life, you’ll see that giving respect early in the game is something like the concept of “paying forward”.  The respect you gave, even when you didn’t really want to, will come back in spades … or so it has for me.

Not happy with the respect you feel a police officer or traffic enforcer seems to be showing you?  Well, whatever you do, don’t argue with him in his job, or spend a week telling everyone in earshot how rotten he was and how mad you are.  If an officer truly treats you with disrespect, make notes and complain later to his higher authorities, but in day to day life …give them the respect they deserve, even if you don’t feel it in your heart at the time.  It is a sign of a civilized, progressive nation and it really doesn’t cost anyone a penny.  To be respected, you must show respect first.

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