Tiong, who is also a Justice of the Peace, through a press statement said that the helpless farmers had turned to him to express their frustration over the indifferent attitude of the police.

According to the farmers, a suspected syndicate had hired illegal immigrants to tap their rubber trees. The farmers were afraid to do anything for fear of being harmed.

Tiong said this had been going on for about two to three months, while the farmers just watched helplessly their rubber trees being tapped literally under their noses. “If this allegation is true, this is robbery in broad daylight. The syndicate is likened to sucking the blood of the farmers.”

Tiong said he was deeply concerned because as SPDP youth chief and the party’s coordinator for the central region, he could not just watch and do nothing.

He said the farmers even told him that the policemen had tried not to entertain them whenever they made reports on the matter. 

They refused to investigate, and gave many excuses like the police chief was not in town and things like that.

Tiong said he was shocked to hear the policemen had instead asked the farmers to supply them with evidence of the alleged crime so that they could act.

“What kind of attitude is this? Aren’t the police supposed to spring into action to see the credibility of the complaint by collecting the evidence themselves?

“How can the police expect the victims to do this all by themselves? 

The criminals might be violent and dangerous. Do the police expect the victims to open an investigation file themselves, and when there is evidence, they themselves must arrest the criminals and hand them over to the policemen?”

He was unhappy with the excuse that the policemen could not act when their chief was not in town.
“The police chief has got his deputy and other senior police officers who can act when he is not around. A police station cannot stop functioning just because the OCPD is not around.”

Tiong said if this sort of thing were left unsolved the people would eventually lose confidence in the police. Suspicion could even arise that they were working with the syndicate.

“Haven’t the district police heard of the alleged crime now that it has been going on for two to three months? Don’t they have even one bit of information to act on by now?”

Tiong felt that the Bintangor police chief should explain the situation to the people. “Explain why no action has been taken and why investigation has not started.”

He said the people expected an immediate investigation that was fair and just in the interest of the people whenever a report was made.

“As I have stressed before, the law is equal to all and no one is above it. Even if my relative or anyone close to me is involved in crime, I expect the police to launch a full investigation.

Tiong said such allegation could spoil the image of the police. “This has come about when our police are building closer ties with the people in the fights against crime. Sadly the odd bad apples are spoiling the whole barrel.”