THERE is an old proverb that one should not speak unless he can improve on silence.
This is something that Rep. Ruffy Biazon, chairman of the House committee on national defense, should have kept in mind when he felt compelled to comment on the daytime robbery of a Rolex store at the posh Greenbelt 5 mall in Makati last Sunday.
In that incident, heavily armed men wearing police “bomb squad” uniforms marched unopposed into the mall then robbed the Rolex store, smashing in display windows with the butts of their rifles to get to the expensive watches.
One of them was killed in an ensuing shootout with police officers who investigated the commotion, but the rest got away with their loot.
Because the robbers used bomb squad vests, the congressman from Muntinlupa argued that it was high time the police replaced their uniforms.
The lawmaker said it was not surprising that the Greenbelt robbers used SWAT uniforms, since these were available anywhere.
He also said the police should have only one authorized supplier of uniforms, and that a secret tag should be sewn into them to distinguish them from fakes.
Any unauthorized sewing of police uniforms should be punished, he added, as he supported a bill by his colleague, Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, that would impose stiffer penalties on civilians wearing police uniforms.
To the good congressman, we pose a few simple questions.
First, how will changing the current uniforms prevent those who are already so inclined to create new counterfeit uniforms?
Second, how secret would the secret tag really be, if all security agencies will be told what they look like? How long would the tag remain secret?
Finally, does he really believe that heavily armed desperadoes who plan and execute a daring daytime heist and who are willing to shoot it out with the police would be deterred by stiffer penalties for wearing a fake uniform?
Sadly, the only thing the congressman proved was that, all too often, the mouth moves faster than the brain.
