The Manila Police District (MPD) — once tagged as the nation’s premier police unit — became the laughing stock of peers and the onus of derision of the public after it was obliged to shutter its much ballyhooed “honesty store” recently due to ballooning financial losses.

A highly-placed source in the MPD Finest Brotherhood Cooperative, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, claimed the micro-establishment — which offered consumer basics like soap, toothpaste, 3-in-1 coffee, cup noodles, soft drinks, juices, etc. — was forced to draw the blinds because there were “so many thieves” infesting the halls of the MPD headquarters who were making off with the goods put on display, totally unmindful of the CCTV.

To top this off, the store was situated only a few feet away from the desk of the duty guard at the main entrance lobby — who in most instances must probably have been absent or sleeping which is why the thieves were so brazen.

The source said the venture had been losing steadily an average of P1,000 monthly ever since it opened in June 2018. All told, it is estimated that more than P20,000 had gone down the drain, including thousands of pesos’ worth of items lifted by an errand lady or “striker” of the MPD Personnel Division who was caught in flagrante delicto by the CCTV but was never punished because she was supposedly the mother of the mistress of one ranking MPD official.

The Cooperative’s general manager, identified as Ester Tan, said the board decided to cease all activities due to steadily declining sales resulting in sizeable losses which the group could no longer afford.

Tan said it was futile to continue operating as there weren’t any palpable developments. Many buyers did not pay, if they paid at all, the correct amount for the goods they were getting while others helped themselves to more change than they were entitled to.

“It is a tough proposition. The honesty store is not applicable in the Manila Police,” Ms. Tan bluntly admitted in an interview with a major daily, an observation that did not sit well with the MPD top brass.

However, closure didn’t last for long because the gods in Camp Crame and Camp Bagong Diwa — presumably PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde and National Capital Region Police Office Director Guillermo Eleazar — reminded the MPD bosses that such a negative development would only tarnish the image of the organization, and directed them to resuscitate the store even if it meant having to subsidize it with their own personal funds or dip into the coffers of their office.

But a representative of the Office of the District Director hastened to clarify that such store closure was not due to dishonest and unscrupulous persons in the MPD, but for restocking of supplies. Plus the fact that the headquarters building along U.N. Avenue was teeming with visitors as there were so many activities during the Christmas holidays.

“It is true the store lost a lot of money, but this has since been replaced. And it should be stressed that the store was not put up to generate income, but to give members of the MPD a chance to show they are an honest lot and are deserving of the trust of the public,” an MPD spokesman told media men.

The honesty store was reportedly initiated last year by former District Director Rolando Anduyan as he wanted to try and awaken the altruistic side of his men, and “open the eyes of policemen that if they can be honest in small things, they can also be trustworthy in bigger things.”

Well, they still have miles and miles to go.