I first heard of this news over the radio yesterday.

The Caloocan police acquired 10 Motorcycle units for their police force to counter act the recent string of thefts involving motorcycle riders in tandem in their area. I thought well then good, maybe they do need to do that instead of passing stupid laws like the stupid helmet sticker law. Then I heard something at the end of the report regarding the cost of the units, something around the area of Php 250,000.00. Again I thought, wow such a big amount for a bike, but giving them the benefit of the doubt again since Caloocan is the bike capital of the city and this is not the first time I’ve heard of bikes that expensive being used for security (Bgy. San Antonio in Pasig purchased a handful of units of Honda CB 400’s for their security force a few years back and are still in use today).

But this morning confirmed what I was dreading. Another news report on the local radio reported that after the turnover ceremonies yesterday, some of the bikes could not be used since there were defective parts (leaky gas tanks and various parts falling off the bike) on some units and some units refused to start. They again reported that these units were purchased for Php 249,000.00, a discussion ensued about what bike they bought, since at that amount you can get a really second hand big bike or a brand new scoot (in fact several scoots). The reporter mentioned something like “yung parang madami sa daan ngayon” (“the kind we most often see on the road today”), which undoubtedly means it was an underbone. Now I’m not familiar with underbone prices nowadays but can somebody please tell me if there are underbones that cost that much, and if there are, why do they have such build quality.

It’s pretty obvious some people made money in this deal, not just small money, a huge chunk of money. Php 250,000.00 multiplied by 10 is Php 2.5 Million. For argument’s sake let’s put the price of their bikes at Php 50,000.00 and the total bill would be Php 500,000.00 for the entire fleet. Someone did make a killing of Php 2 Million. This is Php 2 Million of our money folks, our money, the money which we’ve worked hard for.

The least they could have done was bought proper bikes for our poor policemen.