PNP chief no backbone

“Don't find fault, find a remedy.”

—Henry Ford

By Alex P. Vidal

IT’S been more than a week since Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Archie Franciso Gamboa threatened to relieve regional police directors who can’t stop illegal gambling operations in their respective jurisdictions.

We were among those who expressed skepticism that illegal gambling, which is deeply rooted in the psyche of Filipinos enamored with the games of chance, will be banished in only seven days—unless the regional police directors are supermen.

Since we haven’t heard of reports that heads rolled in as far as Gamboa’s edict was concerned, we assume that the regional directors have successfully implemented and satisfied the PNP chief’s wishes.

But if one day illegal gambling operations will once again “resurface” or if reports will come out that there are—or have been—clandestine operations of illegal gambling monitored in certain areas, this means Gamboa is not being respected and feared by his men.

This means he isn’t different from other past PNP director generals who had also used the “stop-the-illegal-gambling-operations” soliloquy to impress the public but did not have the instinctual will to walk their talk. 

This means Gamboa, too, is puro laway (all saliva) and no backbone as leader of the 191,000 police force.

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Don’t confuse the public.

This must be the gist of Iloilo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 Presiding Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras’ order after after MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) went on what appeared to be a “post victory celebration” binge following the sheriffs’ implementation of the writ of possession in favor of MORE Power against its rival Panay Electric Company (PECO) on February 27 issued by the sala of Requina-Contreras.

The judge directed MORE Power "to remove all the ads pertaining to its full operation pending the resolution of the foregoing."

The ordered added: "MORE Power already made announcements on broadcast and social media that they are now in full operation of the distribution facilities of Iloilo City.”

The lady judge virtually put a gag order on MORE Power’s claim that it is now the sole power distributor in Iloilo City vice the PECO after the February 27 blitzkrieg.

Not to fast, the presiding judge ruled.

According to the presiding judge, MORE Power "may deploy their personnel to man and oversee the substations to exercise their possession and control the distribution facilities but the operations of the facilities should still be handled by PECO personnel who have the technical expertise."

She added: "To maintain the status quo of the operations, so as to give time for MORE Power to orient/train/immerse their personnel, before they can fully take control of the operation."

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IT’S HERE. The coronavirus is officially here in the city where I live. 

The latest new released by New York City Health Department is that the Manhattan lawyer hospitalized with coronavirus is in “severe condition.”

The lawyer, identified by New York Post sources as Lawrence Garbuz, 50, runs a boutique law firm with his wife that also employs one of their four kids as a paralegal, according to information posted online.

The seven-lawyer practice, Lewis & Garbuz, is located across the street from Grand Central Terminal and specializes in matters including personal planning and wealth management, estate litigation, guardianships and elder law, its website says.

Garbuz and his wife, also 50, both graduated from New York University and earned law degrees from Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law before marrying in 1995, according to a wedding announcement published in the New York Times.

Garbuz was initially hospitalized Friday at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, but was transferred on Monday to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in Upper Manhattan when his condition worsened.

He is reportedly being treated in the Intensive Care Unit.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)