—Letitia James
By Alex P. Vidal
WE don’t agree with the decision of the Police Regional Office (PRO-6) to send 100 cops—50 from the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) and 50 from the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO)—to Davao City to augment the police forces there now encircling the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound and locating “most wanted” person Apollo Quiboloy.
Elements of the Police Regional Office (PRO-11) in Davao City led by regional director, Brigadier General Nicolas Torre III, have descended upon the KOJC compound to serve the warrant for the arrest of 74-year-old Quiboloy and other accused for human trafficking, child abuse, and sexual abuse of women.
Unless it is a matter of imminent danger to security of the state, IPPO and ICPO policemen should not leave their barracks as they have their own areas of responsibility to secure like other Philippine National Police (PNP) members deployed in other regions all over the archipelago.
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Iloilo cops should mind their own business. Davao cops should show their mettle and finish what they have started. They should wrap up their assignments without intercession from other units across the oceans.
They are hot after the heels of a nervous and cowardly fugitive, and it seems it’s now only a matter of time before they will corner the Lilliputian.
They aren’t up against heavily armed bandits and suicidal maniacs. Davao cops don’t need a big delegation of reinforcements from other regions. All they need is rest and report back to where the “action” is—if necessary.
We are against the deployment to Davao because what if—God forbid—during the Iloilo-based cops’ transit or “temporary” stay in Davao City, a major peace and order crisis suddenly occurs in the city and province of Iloilo that necessitated the presence of more policemen to augment the local forces?
Unless the PRO-11 cops have been clobbered and wiped out by criminal elements or terrorists and there’s a need to deploy more lawmen in war-torn zones, IPPO and ICPO cops, as well as other cops in other regions, should not leave the civilian populace that they secure.
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The necessity of sending augmentation forces to other regions has many considerations. And hunting down a suspected criminal and his cohorts reportedly hiding in a bunker should not be one of them.
Taxpayers can’t afford to waste additional money for the trip from Iloilo to Davao of the 100 policemen who will have to travel by air and get special allowances for the “extra” job.
As per directives by the PRO-6 led by regional director, Brigadier General Jack Wanky, IPPO and ICPO uniformed personnel will reportedly leave their posts temporarily to “support” or back up their comrades in Davao City who may have been exhausted after several days of helping secure the KOJC compound where the religious cult leader and his co-accused in criminal cases were believed to be hiding since August 24.
Stay in Iloilo. Ilonggos need the Iloilo cops more than the ongoing operations in Davao against Quiboloy, et al.
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“I don’t give a damn about Trump,” says Debbie Nederlof, Instagram influencer who lives in Germany. The 32-year-old is angry that photos of her and other women are being used by a phony campaign on X backing Donald Trump ahead of November’s presidential election.
TIME TO DRAW THE LINE. I have adopted objectivism as a personal philosophy. When the pride and dignity of my countrymen is under siege, I have to draw a demarcation line. In the Philippines, we treat all members of the Armed Forces as heroes and national treasures like our OFWs. They mean everything to us. We have the moral obligation to protect and defend them when push comes to shove.
SIX MORE BODIES. Astronomers have spotted six celestial bodies within a cosmic cloud using the James Webb Space Telescope. The objects are reportedly slightly bigger than Jupiter, and the observations are shedding light on how stars and planets form across the universe.
TOO LATE THE HERO. If Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, former police chief of Albuera, Leyte, said the unfavorable words against now senators Ronald “Bato Dela Rosa and Bong Go when he was still the “poster boy” of the war on drugs during the Duterte administration, Filipinos would have hailed him as hero. It appears Espenido is now saving his own neck and career because former President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte is no longer in power. Did he feel bad that he was never “promoted” or given juicy privileges when Mr. Duterte was still in power?
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
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