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Concerned Public. Outside Manila, the country's 26,000 local police earn as little as $12.80 a month, forcing some cops to pay loan sharks as much as 40%-a-month interest just to meet household expenses. Dishonest cops mulct the public. As for federal police, General Segundo Velasco's 16,000-member Philippine constabulary patrols a 7,000-island beat 1,000 miles long, and he himself can reach only four zone commanders by radio; in turn, he says, they reach their men by such means as "mule train."
What to do? Velasco wants a $2,000,000 radio system to communicate with his provincial commanders, but he "can only hope" that the government will lay out the cash. He and Chief Papa also yearn to collect the citizenry's loose weapons and arm themselves with more and better-paid policemen. Beyond that, says Velasco, "the essence of good law enforcement is a public that cares."
Things are improving — slightly. The case of Under Secretary Teehankee and his son shook the country's cynicism, and the hard-pressed Supreme Court recently found time to force out one lower-court judge and blast another for springing criminal defendants with suspicious speed. To unclog the judicial system, President Ferdinand E. Marcos aims to transfer much of the Supreme Court's surplus jurisdiction and increase the number of lower courts. For such legal improvements, Marcos will ask the next Congress to spend $2,800,000 a year. Though sizable by Philippine standards, he says, that sum is "a very small price to pay for justice."