About Ping
The Man Behind the Relentless Warrior
By: Dra. Minguita Padilla
Part II: Embarking on the Road Less Travelled
While growing up, Ping's hometown had but one policeman, Patrolman Reveche was his name. But he was all they needed to keep their town safe. Like a typical little boy, Ping admired their neighborhood policeman, a simple yet towering figure of a man, who they could all run to whenever there was a problem that needed his attention, whether big or small. This honest police officer was the image Ping would remember and hold as an ideal when he later entered the Philippine National Police. This idyllic image of the honest cop remained his guide even when he became the Chief of the Philippine National Police, inheriting as he did a PNP riddled with corruption up to its very core. Through leadership by example, it took him a mere 3 months in office to transform a police force better known for its pot-bellied extorting "kotong" cops, to a force composed of lean, mean, fighting machines; who could once more be trusted by the people they served.
While Ping eventually landed the highest position in the Police Force, becoming a policeman was never one of his childhood ambitions. Although he was always interested in law enforcement, he wanted a greater part of the law. He wanted to study and understand it; inspired to a large extent perhaps by the fact that he saw how people such as his father, simple folk who had less in life, needed to have more of the law to level the playing field and give them a shot at a better life. As a jeepney driver, Ping's father had to live through the tough and sometimes cruel rules of the city jungle; and the realities of such a life did not escape the young boy. He developed a sense of mission, a calling to make a tangible difference in the live of his father and people just like his father. But it was also the 1960's, and aside from the Beatles, Sean Connery as James Bond was likewise making waves; his movies full of images of beautiful women such as Ursula Andress, emerging from the frothy waters on the beach, all inevitably succumbing to the charms of the dashing secret agent. Hence he decided to take up law, with the ultimate goal of becoming an NBI agent.
When he was in third year pre-law at the Lyceum of the Philippines however, a friend from high school invited him to take the entrance examinations at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). Something stirred inside him. Not only would it bring honor to his parents to have a PMA graduate for a son; it would also greatly lessen their financial burden, as PMA students were also government scholars. And as a PMAer, he could still fulfill his sense of mission; and probably more. So he took the examinations and passed. His high school friend however didn't make it.
Ping remembers very vividly how almost the entire town brought him to the bus station to see him off when he left home to go to Baguio to embark on his new life as a PMAer. Their family, his parents particularly, became the toast of the barrio because he passed the PMA entrance exam. That fiesta- like scene at the bus station, the pride of his parents and of the entire town, these were images he took with him. These were also the images he had to hold on to and focus on, especially when he had to endure the many hardships of cadet life, particularly as a plebe. The pride of his "kababayans" and parents, and the shame he imagined he would bring them if he ever quit, were the source of the grit that kept him going. He could not let them down.
Although very thin and almost scrawny when he entered the Academy, he was still one of the best looking cadets in the PMA. Some of the senior classmen liked to call him Bogart, after Humphrey Bogart; even as they made him do a lot of difficult and sometimes demeaning tasks; all par for the course in the life of a "lowly plebe". But he was also a good boxer, and like all good boxers, this earned him the respect, not only of his classmates, but also of his upper classmen. It was the very same boxing skills, combined with his bull headedness and his being a stickler for hygiene that would literally leave him scarred for life.
During one particularly tough boxing competition, Ping entered the boxing ring and realized, to his dismay that he had to use the same mouth guard used by several boxers who went before him. A cleanliness buff even then, he told his coach that he would rather not a use a mouth guard at all, than use one that had already gone from one mouth to another x number of times. His coach could not convince him otherwise. The famous bull headedness was again at work.
So with foolish bravado, he walked into the ring, no mouth guard to protect him. All it took was one strong and direct blow to his chin for the area below his lip to break open, creating a deep and profusely bleeding gnash that went through and through to his teeth, landed him flat on a stretcher and straight to the hospital where he was stitched up to make him whole again. That is the story behind the famous scar below his lip. It does give his face character, but it is also a constant reminder of one painful lesson learned while a cadet.
His training in the PMA further strengthened his strong sense of right and wrong. His guiding principle of "What is right must be kept right. What is wrong must be set right"; had its roots in the halls and fields of the Academy. If his adherence to principle may sometimes seem too stringent; and if he may occasionally seem too trusting and willing to give people the benefit of the doubt despite his years as a law enforcer, it is because of his PMA training; where he took to heart the fact that a man's word can still be trusted and where a man's word was his bond. An honorable man always presumes others are honorable. And so it is with Ping Lacson. This trait has endeared him to those who have come to know him well. Unfortunately however, it is the same trait that has caused him a lot of heartache in the world of politics; where the virtues of honor and integrity have all but disappeared among those who have been able to thrive in its murky waters.
Right after graduation in 1971, Ping Lacson joined the Philippine Constabulary, where he was assigned to the Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group (1971-1986), and the PC-INP Anti-Carnapping Task Force (1986-1988). He immediately established a firm and incorruptible image that would be further bolstered when he became Provincial Commander of the Province of Isabela (1988-1989), then Commander of Cebu Metrodiscom (1989-1992), and Provincial Director of the Province of Laguna (February to July 1992). His star continued to shine bright at the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission as Chief, Task Force Habagat (1992-1995) then at the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force as its Chief (July 1998-January 2001). No other position however would test his mettle like that of Philippine National Police Chief; a position he held from November 1999 until January 2001 and where his achievements would become legend.
Ping's accomplishments and contribution to society and law enforcement did not go unnoticed. He is the recipient of two Outstanding Achievement Medals, five Bronze Cross Medals, 17 Military Merit Medals, three Medalya ng Kadakilaan, and three Medalya ng Kagalingan Awards. In 1982 he was the PC Metrodiscom Officer of the Year. In 1988, he received the Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) and PMA Alumni Achievement Awards, among others.
In his desire to improve further and equip himself with skills as a manager, he earned his Masters in Government Management from Pamantasan ng Lunsod ng Maynila. He was later awarded by the AFP Command and General Staff College with a Certificate of Academic Excellence.
Throughout his sterling career, Ping Lacson has earned the reputation as a no nonsense man, one who gets the job done. Unknown to most however is one basic truth about the man. His firm hand is driven by a very kind heart.