Espenido: A dead man walking?

“No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.”

—Niccolo Machiavelli

By Alex P. Vidal

WE won’t be surprised if controversial Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido will soon be the next target of the extra-judicial killing (EJK), a bloody method of executing criminals and which has tainted the image of the Philippines.

Let’s hope he won’t suffer the fates of Police Majors Joe Pring and Timoteo Zarcal, who were both gunned down at the height of their popularity as “trigger-happy” Manila cops in the early 90’s.

There is more than meets the eye in the recent move of the Philippine National Police (PNP) hierarchy to relieve the rock star of his post as deputy chief of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) after serving only for more or less four months.

Either there was truth to the report that Espenido was included in President Duterte’s list of police officials linked to illegal drugs, or he had to be axed for being someone “who knows too much.”

Four years since the Duterte administration uncorked the deadly war against illegal drugs, no one really knows the real score.

Nobody can tell how many street-level drug pushers have been neutralized and how many big time drug traffickers have been arrested.

Are they really being seriously pursued? 

Or everything in as far as the campaign against illegal drugs is just a charade?

-o0o-

What most people know is that we are losing the battle against illegal drugs.

That there is a disturbing trend of some prominent characters all over the country being abducted surreptitiously not for ransom but to be “silenced” (sometimes their bodies or skeletons were recovered in a drum underneath the river or in the deep water; and in most cases their whereabouts have remained unknown).  

More small fries and even bystanders are maimed and killed via EJK than the real traffickers of illegal substance. 

More arrests have been made against small time drug pushers than the drug lords, who still control the multi-billion business; and who still apparently enjoy the protection of those whose who are supposed to arrest and lock them in jail.

In his brief stint in Bacolod, Espenido must have become too big for his britches because of the gargantuan media attention he has been raking in.

Sent to Bacolod to do a man’s job, he failed to nail down a single drug lord and submitted an egg.

There were allegations that some big names in the higher echelon and the powers that be were not only involved in the protection racket of the syndicates but are members of the syndicates themselves.

If the syndicates have successfully hammered out their arm-twisting and influence-peddling tactics to sully Espenido’s reputation in Malacanang, he is finished.  

From hero to villain.

-o0o-

REENERGIZE WITH EXERCISE EARLY EVENING. Even though we're tired, forcing ourselves to do aerobic exercise will energize us for a couple of hours and make it easier to fall asleep at night. 

Our body temperature naturally falls at night, shortly before bedtime, so the natural dip in temperature that happens about 2 hours after a workout can help us get to bed at a decent hour and wake up refreshed the next morning.

AVOID CHEMICALS IN OUR CANS. Canned food alert: Consumer Reports found bisphenol A-a chemical linked to reproductive problems, diabetes, and heart disease--in all 19 brandname canned foods it tested, including those labeled BPA free. 

Because levels vary so widely, even among cans of the same product, there's no way to predict how much we're getting.

LET'S TIME OUR NAP AFTER LUNCH. Research shows that naps, especially "power naps" of 20 to 30 minutes, help ward off fatigue. To maximize the benefits, let's try taking a siesta after lunch, when our energy levels are particularly low. 

Let us limit rest to less  than 30 minutes, or stretch it out to 60 to 90 minutes to avoid grogginess that results from waking up in the middle of deep sleep. (Source: Prevention)

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

Don't touch the Ilonggos with a ten-foot pole

"In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so."
--Immanuel Kant

By Alex P. Vidal

ILONGGOS have the right to protect themselves from law enforcers who apparently aren't afraid to kill in the name of an "all-out campaign against illegal drugs".
The Bill of Rights is the Bill of Life.
In case Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) deputy chief Jovie Espenido will literally implement the illegal and immoral order from the President to "kill anybody", we must remind the Philippine National Police (PNP) the following:
-No suspected criminal should die from lawmen;
-A person accused of having committed a certain crime must be given his day in court;
-Life should be preserved.
-The State should ensure that he will undergo a fair trial, a litigation that will not last in eternity; a justice delayed is a justice denied.
Extra-Judicial Killings (EJK), therefore, have no place in a civilized society.
In the Philippine Constitution, the Bill of Rights under Article III establishes our relationship to the State and defines our rights by limiting the lawful powers of the State.
This is one of our most important political achievements.
The concept of the Bill of Rights is essentially an occidental product; there has grown the conviction that our rights must be preserved and safeguarded, not through the authority of an individual, not through membership in a particular group or party, not through reliance upon force of arms, but rather through the accepted process of declared constitutional law.

-o0o-

Partners in crimes nabbed separately are mostly forced to rat against each other. This is a fundamental police technique in custodial investigation.
Self-interest can be consistent with acting cooperatively.
This can be proven in David Gauthier's version of the Prisoner's Dilemma.
According to the story of the Prisoner's Dilemma, two people have been brought in for questioning, conducted separately, about a crime they are suspected to have committed.
The police have solid evidence of a lesser crime that they committed, but need confessions in order to convict them on more serious charges.
Each prisoner is told that if she cooperates with the police by informing on the other prisoner, then she will be rewarded by receiving a relatively light sentence of one year in prison, whereas her cohort will go to prison for ten years.
If they both remain silent, then there will be no such rewards, and they can each expect to receive moderate sentences of two years.

-o0o-

And if they both cooperate with police by informing on each other, then the police will have enough to send each to prison for five years.
The dilemma then is this: in order to serve her own interests as well as possible, each prisoner reasons that no matter what the other does she is better off cooperating with the police by confessing.
Each reasons: "If she confesses, then I should confess, thereby being sentenced to five years instead of ten. And if she does not confess, then I should confess, thereby being sentenced to one year instead of two. So, no matter what she does, I should confess." The problem is that when each reason this way, they each confess, and each goes to prison for five years.
However, had they each remained silent, thereby cooperating with each other rather than with the police, they would have spent only two years in prison.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Rodrigo Duterte no respect for Ilonggos in Bacolod

"There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death. Whether it's the mundane violence we do to our bodies by overeating toxic food or drink or the extreme violence of child abuse, domestic warfare, life-threatening poverty, addiction, or state terrorism."
--Bell Hooks

By Alex P. Vidal

RODRIGO Roa Duterte may have abused his presidency for ordering his police "berdugo", Jovie Espenido, to "kill everybody" in Bacolod City.
If you are a parent, a wife, a husband, a priest, a journalist, a tambay, a teacher, an activist, a vendor and you live in Bacolod City, you will surely shake in your shirts.
Any civilian can be killed either on suspicion of involvement in illegal drugs, or as a "collateral damage" when the Duterte-inspired lawmen hunt down their "persons of interest."
Any Juan, Pedro, Toto and Inday can be murdered because they are "nanlaban" or "nag bato" (resisted and fought the police) when "arrested".
We all know what happened to the more than 5,000 alleged victims of the extra-judicial killings (EJK) ever since the Duterte administration waged a bloody rampage versus illegal drugs.

-o0o-

With his statement, a pre-Halloween dagger, Duterte probably thinks people in the "City of Smile" are worse than animals.
He is promoting and sponsoring violence by egging an excited and over-rated chief law enforcer to disregard the due process, the basic essence of democracy, and blatantly commit a human rights violation.
The president has no regard for the human life.
He has no respect for the Ilonggos in Bacolod City who had accorded him a warm welcome on several occasions.
Duterte's sweeping and irresponsible order on Espenido may be misinterpreted by trigger-happy maniacs who wear police uniforms.
He thinks the only solution to the problem on illegal drugs is to kill both the pusher and the user, to brutally wage terror in a civilian community.
Duterte has assigned Espenido, a police lieutenant colonel, to the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) as deputy with a main purpose of running after illegal drug traffickers in the city which he described as "badly hit" by illegal drugs.
"Bacolod City is badly hit now and I placed Espenido there because he is the only police official feared the most," Duterte said recently.
"And I told him to go there and you are free to kill everybody. 'Go, start killing them."

-o0o-

We are puzzled why until now no public official or organization in Bacolod City has criticized Mr. Duterte's dangerous statement.
No one from the City Council has stood up in the rostrum to at least remind the president that Bacolod is a peaceful city and any violent enforcement of the law will not be tolerated by peace-loving Bacolodnons.
If Mayor Bing Leonardia can't criticize his friend, President Duterte, for his unpalatable remarks, the opposition or anyone in the local government who believes in decency and the rule of law should initiate a discourse or debate that the President should rectify his mistake soon and tell the public he had no intention of sowing terror in Bacolod City.
Bacolodnons should unite and chide the President, and demand from him to remind Espenido or any police personnel for that matter to respect the rule of law and value the fundamental human rights of any civilian.
There should be no more bloodbaths. No more hubris when implementing the law. No ifs. No buts.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Espenido is not Hercules

"I do know one thing about me: I don't measure myself by others' expectations or let others define my worth."
--Sonia Sotomayor

By Alex P. Vidal

THOSE who expect newly designated Baclod City Police Office (BCPO) deputy city director for operations, Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido to single-handedly erase all the drug traffickers in Bacolod City from the face of earth must either be high on drugs or just simply foolish and naive.
Espenido is not Hercules.
He is not even a Dirty Harry-type of law enforcer like what we all saw in the Clint Eastwood-starred Hollywood films in the 70's and 80's.
Espenido is a media creation.
His sensational stints as top cop in Leyte and Ozamis City where he led bloody crackdowns against prominent members of clans engaged in illegal drug made newspaper headlines yes, but they were all done with direct supervision and order from the higher ups that adhered to the iron-fist policy of the Duterte administration against illegal drugs.

-o0o-

Espenido did not become instant star by killing the bad guys on the spot in a chance encounter or random act of crime like Charles Bronson in The Death Wish.
Any wily and determined cop "assigned" to perform President Duterte's wishes will also hog newspaper headlines like Espenido for a "job well done."
Espenido was "placed there" for a special task; he was not an accidental hero, or an off-duty cop who bravely chased five hooligans in broad daylight and walked away over their dead bodies with a smoking gun like Wyatt Earp.
It's funny that fans of Extra-Judicial Killings (EJK) treated Espenido like he won the gold medal in the world gymnastics championship when he was recently officially introduced as the new BCPO deputy.
He was presented in the media like a folk hero who just crossed the River Styx after rescuing the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.

-o0o-

It's funnier when Espenido invoked the name of God when asked by reporters if his campaign against illegal drugs in the City of Smile would be bloody.
He reportedly declared: “If it’s God’s will, hindi man tayo makasiguro nyan kasi ang sa atin trabaho lang. ‘Yung sa atin lang is the rule of law. ‘Yun man ang pinangarap ng Presidente natin na mandate ng batas sa PNP."
It's not God's will to kill crime suspects, much less those who have not been properly arrested and convicted in court.
It's not God's will to execute unarmed civilians on suspicion they have links to illegal drugs.
God's law is just. Man's law is banal and imprecise.
In parading Espenido and disclosing the nature of his assignment in the BCPO, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has telegraphed its punches.
Drug lords and other outlaws in Bacold City and other cities and provinces can now prepare how to handle the PNP's latest move.

-o0o-

Aside from donating sports equipment to the Iloilo City Government, we request the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) to allow finance the training of Ilonggo athletes with potentials to win gold medals in international competitions.
Carlos Edriel Yulo, 19, the first-ever Filipino to win a gold medal at the world championships in Stuttgart on October 12, came from the grassroots.
Aside from the world-class facilities where Yulo and his fellow gymnasts trained, they were given the opportunities to hone their skills abroad from financial assistance given by the PSC, among other sources of training funds.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

'Rock star' treatment could endanger cop's life

"I try not to be influenced by success or popularity."
--Suga

By Alex P. Vidal

POLICE Major Jovie Espenido is just an ordinary police officer, but fans of extra-judicial killings (EJK) made him a bigger-than-life hero.
Every time Espenido's name and his next assignment are mentioned in the press, EJK fans, including the media, burst in excitement as if they are about to see the Halley's Comet.
Espenido himself could be surprised that he has been accorded the "rock star" treatment by those who advocate for immediate annihilation of drug dealers, so that the government will no longer waste the taxpayers' money for the litigation of these criminals.
He earned the "berdugo" (executioner) reputation after being assigned in Ozamis City where he led the raid on the resident of the dangerous Parojinog family in 2017 that resulted in many deaths and arrest of suspected drug traffickers who were previously untouchables.

-o0o-

In the Philippines, those who talk tough and act with iron fists--even if some of them are dimwits--are admired and hailed as heroes.
Then they are elected in the senate.
Espenido also became a media sensation when President Duterte wanted to assign him in Iloilo City two years ago in a bid to scare former mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who was believed to have flown to Canada earlier.
Duterte fanatics, especially Mabilog's enemies, welcomed the news of Espenido's scheduled transfer in Iloilo City; some even flooded the social media with veiled threats and mockery aimed directly at the crestfallen former city mayor.
Espenido's transfer was called off after the intelligence reportedly intercepted reports that Espenido's life was in danger; some members of drug syndicates and Ilonggo sympathizers of Mabilog and other personalities offended by the current administration were reportedly waiting to "waylay" the popular police officer whatever that means.
Which reminds us of Joe Pring and Timoteo Zarcal, two charismatic and sensational Manila cops killed by suspected leftist rebels one after another in 1994.
They were at the height of their popularity and, like Espenido today, they also were accorded the "rock star" treatment by their fans.

-o0o-

IT isn't mandatory for people outside Metro Manila to have a knee-jerk reaction each time there are controversies and scandals involving misbehaving politicians and policemen in the Imperial Manila.
It is not also necessary that those living outside Metro Manila will "adopt" the fears and panic felt by the victims of these Metro Manila-based politicians and rogue cops.
Like when the Senate tackled the "ninja cops" controversy involving some members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Metro Manila.
Since the senate hearings were aired "live" on the Internet and broadcast media, they had chilling effects on people, who have fears for these types of law enforcers, all over the archipelago.
Many of these people, the so-called "promdi", think the threats and activities of the "ninja cops" have stretched and are also happening in their regions.
Thus the good cops, who have nothing to do whatsoever with the bad behaviors of their counterparts in the Imperial Manila, are also being sideswiped by the negative publicity.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Turf war? Tell it to the marines

“Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?” -- ANONYMOUS

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I personally don’t buy the theory being put forward by Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) investigators in the Philippines that the murder of retired cop Ronaldo “Apple” Alag, 57, could be the result of a “turf war” among drug syndicates.
At least this is one of the angles the police are reportedly trying to crack.
Only two big groups engaged in illegal drugs were known to have widely operated in Iloilo City since the early 90’s until recently: the Odicta Drug Group and the Prevendido Drug Group.
All other satellite or smaller groups were either linked to the above-mentioned groups or “colorum” teams with no abundant wherewithal.
Both the leaders of the Odicta Drug Group and Prevendido Drug Group have been “neutralized” with the killing of Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. on August 29, 2016 in Caticlan, Aklan and of Richard “Buang” Prevendido on September 1, 2017 in Balabago, Jaro District, Iloilo City.

-o0o-

Buang’s sister, Remia Prevendido-Gregori, the village chief of Barangay Bakhaw in Mandurriao District, Iloilo City, was also killed on June 24, 2018 at the family-owned resort in Barangay Igcadlum in San Joaquin town.
Because both groups were making a lot of money and some of their couriers and associates were known to each other, the Odicta and Prevendido Drug Groups weren’t at war against each other.
They could not.
They should not.
Engaging in a Mafia-like “elimination process” to corner or polish off the cookies would defeat their purpose; they weren’t that sophisticated and glamorous to act as Godfather bioflick copycats.
The Odicta Drug Group was “too big” to wage a bloody rivalry against the “smaller” Prevendido Drug Group, which was “too inferior” to mount a trouble against the former.
The groups were believed to have operated not only in Iloilo City, but in the entire Western Visayas that included the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras, Aklan, Capiz, Antique, and Negros, making the angle of territorial disputes seems implausible.

-o0o-

The Regional Police Office 6 (RPO-6) has admitted there are remnants of these groups or even “new players” trying to revive the syndicates’ old glory, but because of the aggressive campaign being waged by the RPO-6 and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), their tentacles couldn’t easily mushroom.
The police’s swashbuckling operations supervised by tough RPO-6 director, Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, these past months have trounced them before they could blast off and spread their legs.
It was believed that with the fall of Odicta and Prevendido, even their much-vaunted war chest and armed machinery (killing apparatuses) have been subdued if not crippled.
Thus it’s inconceivable that any “active” drug group can have the guts and capability to violently exterminate the likes of Apple Alag and Odicta’s lawyer Edeljulio “Judel” Romero using professional killers “with military precision” and in broad daylight.
Turf war?
Or another case of extra-judicial killing (EJK)?

Apple Alag was PNP’s ‘small but terrible’

“Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.”
--Hannah Arendt

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Retired SPO2 Ronald “Apple” Alag, 57, was one of the three rookie cops known in Iloilo City in the Philippines as “small but terrible” during the heyday of the late former Metrodistrict Police Command (Metrodiscom) chief, Col. Achilles Plagata, in the mid-80’s.
“Si Apple (Alag) masaligan ko gid ina. Maboot ina nga pulis (I have trust in Apple. He is a good cop),” Plagata told us, members of the Iloilo City Hall Press Corps, when “Tay Achil” was city councilor in the 90’s.
Plagata’s reaction came after Apple hogged headlines in the local media when a fellow cop, Douglas Demonteverde, nearly shot Apple with an armalite rifle inside the Arevelo Police Precinct in Villa, Arevalo district sometime in 1996.
This was how Apple’s name first became controversial.

-o0o-

Apple, then the Arevalo police desk sergeant, confronted Demonteverde for his tardiness, among other infractions.
Demonteverde, who didn’t like the admonition, aimed the firearm at Apple and yelled in local dialect, “So what if you are an Alag? I am not afraid to shoot you right now.”
Cooler heads pacified them.
“This is now my second life,” Apple told reporters who responded in the station.
He didn’t fight back “because I was armed only with a .38 caliber.”
Aside from Apple, fellow rookie cops Ricky Thornton and Nathaniel Ore were also known as “small but terrible” because of their frame and effectiveness in hunting down snatchers, thieves, and other criminals.
They could be mistaken for civilians and teenagers, thus they were able to easily round up some of the most notorious criminals in the metropolis.
Apple, Thornton, Ore, Ashley Agustin, Danilo Tan were five of the finest and the best cops under Plagata’s wing who did excellent intelligence works for the Metrodiscom (now the Iloilo City Police Office).
Because of their sharpness and impressive abilities, criminals in Iloilo City fell one after the other and peace and order was at its lowest in those years.
Alag became known as “Apple” because “he was the apple of the eyes” of his family, colleagues, some reporters and even criminals.

-o0o-

I first heard of Apple in 1996 when his name surfaced as one of the two cops linked to the late controversial Supt. Mosa “Batman” Amiyong, who was gunned down on November 22, 2013 on Quirino Bridge in Iloilo City.
Apple and colleague Rex Egpuara, a former bodyguard of the slain Bombo Radyo anchorman Rino Arcones, reportedly “worked” for Amiyong, who was then suspected of “facilitating” the entry of illegal drugs from Mindanao to Iloilo.
There was no evidence that directly linked Apple and Egpuara to Amiyong’s alleged illegal activities.
Before the late suspected drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. ruled the illegal drug trade in Western Visayas, then Metrodiscom chief, Col. Vicente Neptuno, using a K9 dog, nabbed suspected drug dealer, Bolane Daquiado, nephew of the late Agusan del Norte Mayor Nilo “Taklong” Soliva, in a raid in Jereos Extension, La Paz district.

-o0o-

Writing for Sun.Star Iloilo, I again heard of Apple’s name but there was no evidence to link him to Bolane’s group.
Reporters covering the police beat, fellow cops and family members described Apple as “maboot, maalwan, maamigohon kag mapisan (a good-natured person, generous, friendly, diligent).”
When he retired from the PNP in 2005, Apple’s “only mistake” was he became known as Odicta’s “bodyguard”.
Apple reportedly “sidelined” as security guard in Odicta’s pawnshop in Maria Clara, City Proper but was actually “actively involved in Odicta’s illegal drug trade” as “protector.”
There was no evidence that Apple personally sold illegal drugs after Odicta and his wife, Meriam, were murdered in Caticlan, Aklan two years ago, but the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) confirmed he was in the watch list of personalities engaged in illegal drugs.

-o0o-

Apple’s murder by two riding-in-tandem assailants (one had served as the shooter and the other as the driver) in the morning on November 19, 2018 in Brgy. Villa Anita, Iloilo City Proper was brazen because it happened in broad daylight (at around 8 o’clock in the morning) in his own territory, the place where he grew up.
Apple was driving his white van when the unidentified gunman, a back rider, shot him on his left side. He died of multiple gunshot wounds in the hospital.
The crime was captured on CCTV.
The attackers were so determined to finish him off that they weren’t afraid to attack Apple in the village where the incumbent punong barangay is his brother, Ondoy, a former firefighter.
Of the three Alags who served as law enforcers, Apple was considered as “the most well-loved and admired” by his friends and neighbors.
Apple’s two other older brothers are now retired former Philippine Constabulary (PC) members Alfonso and Celoy, who were known as “astigs” (toughies) who “didn’t have mercy for the criminals.”
Some inmates in the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) reportedly “liked” Apple “because he didn’t harm them physically and (he) even shared some of his ‘blessings’ to them.”

We worry on attempts to intimidate critical journalists

“Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.”
--Aaron Burr

Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It’s too early for opponents of Panay Electric Company (PECO) to celebrate even if the Senate Committee on Public Services chaired by Senator Grace Poe has already given the MORE Power and Electric Company the green signal to be the new power distributor in Iloilo City.
PECO isn’t dead yet.
It is only fighting for its life in the surgery room surrounded by the best doctors who can still revive and prolong the life, or even save it from permanent disability and restore its main faculties.
PECO is still hoping to get a favorable ruling in the Lower House, where its application for renewal of its franchise is pending, before the expiration of its franchise on January 19, 2019.
While it has a myriad of available options and resources to wage a protracted legislative and legal battle to protect its interest and survival, PECO isn’t yet in the mood to raise the white flag.

-o0o-

This could be the reason why PECO has refused to participate in the technical working group (TWG) meeting that would have commenced the transition works between MORE Power and Electric Company and PECO on November 8, 2018.
PECO has already made a stand not to sell its assets to a competitor.
It remains to be seen if MORE Power and Electric Company can efficiently serve the thousands of Ilonggo consumers without sufficient and time-tested ground technical resources and manpower in the territory that has been steamrolled and dominated by PECO for several eras.
The impasse is expected to prolong especially that PECO has disclosed its willingness to slug it out with the MORE Power and Electric Company all the way to the Supreme Court.
Ilonggo power consumers will be spared from inconvenience and stray bullets if Congress will expedite its verdict on PECO’s application for extension of its franchise and if the court will act with dispatch and alacrity once the imbroglio has been tossed there for litigation.

-o0o-

As a Filipino journalist, I worry a lot that potential tax evasion charges are being readied and might be used to intimidate Philippine government critic Maria Ressa as well as other critics of the Duterte administration.
The threat against the lady journalist has prompted an outpouring of support on social media.
Colleagues from around the world have praised the founder and editor of investigative news site Rappler, voicing our fears about the state of press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation.
Philippines prosecutors have revealed that “they have grounds to indict Ressa and Rappler for failing to pay taxes on 2015 bond sales.”
The penalties, under the Philippine law, could include a fine and a 10-year imprisonment.
Ressa is a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte. She has rejected the “ridiculous charges” as a thinly veiled attempt to silence critical coverage saying such indictments are meant to “intimidate and harass” journalists.
We fear other enemies of the press might take advantage of the government’s aggressive reactions against critical reporters.
I have also written critically and voiced my opinion heavily against some of the Philippine Government's bad policies especially against the extra-judicial killings (EJK) which has killed thousands of suspected drug addicts and traffickers not yet convicted in any court.
The media landscape in the Philippines, which ranks 133rd on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, has come under extreme pressure since Duterte rose to power in 2016.
Founded in 2012 by Ressa and three other journalists, Rappler has cast a spotlight on Duterte’s brutal war on illegal drugs and street crimes.
Rappler has faced a barrage of online trolls and a series of government-backed lawsuits aimed at shutting the site as a result.
Let’s hope that harassment and intimidation against crusading journalists will not end up in assassinations just like what happened to hundreds of our colleagues since democracy was restored in the 1986 EDSA People Power. God forbid.

Was Supt. Rapiz ‘silenced?’

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”
--HELEN PREJEAN

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- For every lawyer murdered in the Philippines and the killers managed to slip away, justice bleeds.
If justice is denied, democracy wobbles.
More injustices, or more deadly attacks on unarmed civilians and officers of the court and the cases are unsolved, means imminent collapse of democracy.
If democracy is dead, lawlessness, abuses by those in power, and authoritarian rule reign.
If a crusading lawyer like Benjamin Tarug Ramos Jr. can be muzzled violently and no justice is given, what are the chances of ordinary laborers, farm workers, and the poor if they, too, will be eviscerated when they seek redress for their legitimate grievances?
As a defender of the oppressed and the voiceless in society, the state should have ensured the protection and safety of Ramos and his ilk who are vulnerable to brutal attacks and violence.
And now that Ramos is dead, the state should utilize all its corpulent resources to hunt down the killers.
Its chilling effects will be felt not only by Ramos’ colleagues in Negros, but also by all members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) all over the country.

-o0o-

Motorcycle-riding men gunned down Ramos, of Brgy. Biniculi, Kabankalan City around 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2018 at Rojas Street, Brgy. 5.
The 56-year-old Ramos, secretary-general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)-Negros Chapter, was taking a break after some paper works for his pro bono clients when shot.
Report said he suffered three gunshot wounds at the right backside and left upper chest of his body and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The lawyer was “maliciously and irresponsibly tagged in a public poster by the Philippine police as among the so-called personalities of the underground armed movement,” according to NUPL.
NUPL said Ramos was the 34th lawyer killed under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Excluding judges and prosecutors, he was the 24th member of the profession killed and 8th in the Visayas.
Violence should not be the answer if an establishment or a powerful and well-connected group is annoyed by the advocacy of crusading lawyers.
The use of force and treachery is the handiwork of cowards and psychos.
That’s how we best describe both the killers and the mastermind or masterminds of Ramos’ murder.
The recent wave of lawlessness that snuffed out the life of a brave lawyer should be condemned not because Ramos was a lawyer, but also because murder is a crime.

-o0o-

I have declared this several times and I am declaring it again here: there will be no construction of the much-ballyhooed Panay-Guimaras-Negros bridge this year.
As long as politicians in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other government agencies are the ones doing all the talking, no project will ever romp off.
Only the technical people, experts, and non-political personalities, especially in the business, private, and diplomatic sectors have the credibility when it comes to giving projections on certain multi-billion infrastructure projects like airports, domes, damns, highways, and bridges.
Politicians have zero credibility when it comes to implementation of mammoth projects.

-o0o-

It’s mind-boggling that Police Superintendent Santiago Ylanan Rapiz, a trained and quick-witted police official, will trade shots with fellow cops who came to arrest him allegedly in a buy-bust operation in Dipolog City on Monday night, November 5.
Rapiz, assigned at the Logistics Branch of the Zamboanga del Norte Police Provincial Office, was killed in an anti-drug operation of the Philippine National Police-Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in front of Andres Bonifacio College Gymnasium, in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte.
Even a rookie cop knows that his chances of survival are nil if he opts to shoot it out when he is already cornered and overpowered.

Questions for the man called ‘Bato’

“Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.” 

--Henri Nouwen

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I saw on social media that retired Philippine National Police (PNP) director general Ronald Marapon “Bato” dela Rosa visited Iloilo City before the All Saints’ Day, and was interviewed by my media colleagues there.
I have long wanted to interview retired general Bato even when he was still the PNP chief.
Now that he has retired and is running for senator, I am more emboldened to interview him as a candidate Mr. Bato.
I hope we can meet soon--in the US, where he was once invited by his kumpare, Senator Manny Pacquiao, to watch the boxer’s fight in Las Vegas, or in the Philippines, where he is now busy “campaigning” for his senatorial bid--before, during, or after the May 2019 elections.
Since the possibility of this meeting, nay interview, remains hanging by a thread for the time being, I would like to pose here some of the possible questions I might throw at the bubbly 56-year-old senatorial candidate from Davao del Sur in the event I’ll be lucky to bump him anytime.

-o0o-

Here’s some of my questions for retired General Bato:
--When you assumed as PNP director general on July 1, 2016, you reechoed the promise made by President Duterte, your No. 1 endorser, that you would arrest or neutralize all the drug lords in the Philippines in the first six months.
Records show that you failed to deliver that promise. Can you comment on this, sir?
--In tears, you vowed to resign if you can’t fulfill your promise to the Filipino people. You did tender your resignation belatedly, but President Duterte rejected it. He even extended your term as the PNP big boss.
What did you do in the remaining months that your term was extended to redeem yourself after you failed to bag the biggest crooks or the “barracudas” in illegal drug trade, who remain at large as of this writing, in the Philippines?
--After you retired as PNP director general on April 19, 2018, your patron President Duterte “gifted” you with a position as director of the Bureau of Corrections from April 30, 2018 until October 12, 2018.
In the six months that you were the big boss of the country’s biggest jail, where some of the most prominent convicted criminals, including the top drug lords, are detained, what changes--if there are some--have you introduced to improve the jail and management system in the country’s premier corrections facility that houses hundreds of hardened criminals?
--You are pushing for the restoration of death penalty, you said in your media interviews. Is your stand on this subject matter influenced by what you discovered in the Bureau of Corrections during the six months of your directorship? Do you believe that the National Bilibid Prison is over crowded and incapable of accommodating more inmates, and the only solution to this “problem” is exterminate those who have been convicted of heinous crimes?

-o0o-

We already have an idea of your answer to this next question, but I must still ask this, nevertheless, in a hope that you can shed light on this very controversial issue especially now that you are “on your own” and seeking the blessings of the Filipino electorate for a very important position in the country’s highest legislature.
--Did the police engage in summary executions or extra-judicial killings (EJK) when you were the PNP director general? If your answer is NO, how do you explain the scandalous killings of thousands of suspected drug addicts in the slum areas and the murders of suspected illegal drug traffickers not yet charged formally in court?
If your answer is YES (which we know you won’t admit), will you pin the blame on the Commander in Chief, President Duterte and claim, as a defense, that you were only an underling and receiving orders as a “good soldier”? Or you will own the “command responsibility” and be open and willing to be subjected to any lawful and fair investigation?
And, if elected in the senate, are you willing to cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which investigates the cases of thousands of alleged EJK victims in the Philippines involving mostly “tambays” or poor suspected drug addicts and “small time” drug pushers?
Hoping to see you soon, General Bato.

I hope I won’t ‘disappear’ like Jamal Khashoggi

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”
--HELEN PREJEAN, Dead Man Walking

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I hope I won’t “disappear” if I write critical stories against the Philippine Government even if I am in the United States.
Journalists around the world are probably expressing the same concern after brave Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared and believed to have been murdered when he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2, 2018.
The journalist’s mysterious disappearance has spawned an international diplomatic crisis and is currently the “talk of the town” in the global media.
Khashoggi has written extensively for the Washington Post about Saudi Arabia, criticizing its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women's rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving.
Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the billionaire Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Like Khashoggi, we also visit our Philippine Consulate from time to time to interview Consulate officials and cover art, cultural, musical, and political events even if in the stories we write, we critically call the attention of government officials concerned over some reported malpractices and suspected acts of graft and corruption.
Turkish officials have said they fear a Saudi hit team killed and dismembered Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the crown prince.
The kingdom has called such allegations "baseless," but has not offered any evidence Khashoggi ever left the consulate.

-o0o-

I have written several critical articles against the extra-judicial killings (EJK) in the Philippines, but not against the person of Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who has been known to be sensitive to media criticism especially those who broadcast and write about the EJK involving suspected drug pushers and users mostly in the slum areas.
Based on the figure released by a joint report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), 85 cases of attacks against journalists have been recorded since Mr. Duterte assumed office in June 2016.
This includes the killing of 9 journalists, 16 libel cases, 14 cases of online harassment, 11 death threats, 6 slay attempts, 6 cases of harassment, 5 cases of intimidation, 4 cases of website attack, revoked registration or denied franchise renewal, verbal abuse, strafing, and police surveillance of journalists and media agencies.
Malous Mangahas, executive director of the PCIJ, said in a forum during the World Press Freedom Day in May early this year, the number “far exceeds those recorded under four presidents before him. Separately and together, these 85 cases have made the practice of journalism an even more dangerous endeavor under Duterte.”

-o0o-

The nine media killings under Duterte's administration is higher compared to the numbers of slays during the first 22 months of other presidents: five during President Benigno “Noy-Noy”Aquino III's time, five under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, five cases under President Fidel Ramos and three cases under President Joseph Estrada.
Even if Mr. Duterte is known to be notoriously allergic to media criticism and does not mince words when issuing threats against reporters, we are confident he won’t go to the extent of violently muzzling journalists like me who want only to help the Philippine government and not to destroy the president’s reputation.
We reiterate that journalists are partners of Mr. Duterte and other officials in government in nation building, not enemies that agitate to topple the administration through subversive means.
We support the ongoing international efforts to investigate Khashoggi’s case and bring to court the perpetrators.
May his family recover his body dead or alive.

Iloilo police 'task force' once linked to EJK

"Even in killing men, observe the rules of propriety."
--CONFUCIUS

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Even before the alleged Davao Death Squad (DDS) terrorized criminals in Davao City, the territory of President Rodrigo Duterte, a police "task force" in Iloilo City was already making headlines in the late 80's and early 90's for links to the now infamous tagline "extra-judicial killing" or EJK.
The dreaded "Task Force Iron Eagle" led by one Colonel Rolando Maclang, operated under the tutelage of the Metrodistrict Police Command (Metrodiscom), now Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO).
Maclang had been convicted for the kidnapping and murder of a woman Filipino-Chinese cockfighting habitue, Roberta "Obing" Cocjin, and is now serving a jail term in the New Bilibid Prison.  
Bodies of EJK victims were mostly dumped in the now Sen. Benigno Aquino Avenue, formerly known as Iloilo Diversion Road when it was still grassy, muddy and dark. 
Under the watch of the late former city councilor Achilles Plagata, Metrodiscom earned notoriety for alleged involvement in EJKs where the victims were mostly thieves, rapists, drug pushers, and members of the underworld. 

COUNCILOR

Plagata was a former police colonel who became a city councilor in the 90's after his retirement. He was swashbuckling and tough-talking and had no mercy for criminals. 
Well-loved and feared by police scalawags, he could have been "Iloilo City's Rodrigo Duterte" had he ran and won for city mayor.
Like Duterte, Plagata also used cuss words and diatribes to torment bad elements in society. 
His mere presence in police offices would strike fear in the hearts of lousy policemen who got dressed down like kindergarten pupils.
Task Force Iron Eagle crossed my mind when I leaned that alleged former executioner, retired SPO3 Arturo Lascañas, corroborated the testimony of fellow hitman Edgar Matobato linking President Duterte to the so-called DDS.
When Plagata retired in police service until his stint as elected city official, nobody from among his former henchmen ratted against their former operations.
In other words, Plagata took good care all his minions even during his civilian life.  
The likes of Lascañas and Matobato were unheard of during Plagata's "reign of terror."

Pinoy victims of EJKs, 'You've got a friend' in James Taylor

“When you stop growing you start dying. An addict never stops growing. A user is a continual state of shrinking and growing in his daily cycle of shot-need for shot completed.” 
― William S. Burroughs

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW JERSEY -- When a visiting friend asked me in September this year to accompany her to the place where John Lennon was assassinated in New York City 37 years ago, I first pointed to her the former residence of James Vernon Taylor in the Upper West End Avenue in Manhattan.
Taylor lived in the next building from Lennon.
"I'm interested on John Lennon's apartment. Bring me there," the friend badgered me.
We walked from Central Park's Strawberry Fields (where Lennon's ashes had been scattered by Yoko Ono after cremation and where Lennon's "Imagine" song had been playing non-stop) before proceeding to Dakota, in the gate of Lennon's apartment where he was shot in the head by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980.
It was Taylor who first had an eerie encounter with Chapman, then 26-year-old Texan, 24 hours before Lennon's murder.
Could he have prevented the assassination of one of music industry's most talented, charismatic and highly-regarded artists in history?

INTERVIEW

In a 2010 interview with BBC, the now 68-year-old American singer-songwriter and guitarist, revealed that Chapman "...had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon. And it was surreal to actually have contact with the guy 24 hours before he shot John." 
After Lennon was officially declared dead in the nearby Roosevelt Hospital, Taylor alleged he heard Chapman "shot--five, just as quick as you could pull the trigger, about five explosions."
Taylor, born in Boston, Massachusetts, stayed in New York City as he was on a methadone maintenance program to cure him of his drug addiction.
Yes, fellas. The singer who popularized "You've Got a Friend", "Fire and Rain", "How Sweet It Is (to be loved by you)", "Handy Man", "Your Smiling Face", was a former drug addict.
Taylor was in the news in the Philippines after he cancelled his Manila concert in February 2017 in protest of the extra-judicial killings (EJK).

MESSAGE

In his personal blog (www.jamestaylor.com), the five-time Grammy Award winner, wrote dated December 20, 2016:
I’ve been eagerly looking forward to playing for my Philippine audience ever since we added Manila to our tour of the Pacific this coming February. So it saddens me to cancel our concert there. I don’t think of my music as being particularly political but sometimes one is called upon to make a political stand. 
The scourge of addiction is a worldwide problem and does serious harm, not only to the addict but to our society. For a sovereign nation to prosecute and punish, under the law, those responsible for the illegal trade in drugs is, of course, understandable, even commendable; but recent reports from the Philippines of summary executions of suspected offenders without trial or judicial process are deeply concerning and unacceptable to anyone who loves the rule of law. 
I offer my heartfelt apologies for any inconvenience or disappointment this may cause my Filipino friends but I must now announce that I will not be performing in Manila this February. All tickets sold will, of course, be fully refunded. I am grateful to my promoter, Renen de Guia, for his patience and understanding. 
This decision will, in no way, affect my plans to perform as announced in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
James Taylor

-o0o-

To all victims of EJKs in the Philippines, as well as other drug dependents targeted by summary executions, let's listen to a song from "a friend": You've Got A Friend

By James Taylor

When you're down and troubled
And you need a helping hand
And nothing, nothing is going right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night
You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running, oh yeah baby, to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you've got to do is call
And I'll be there, ye, ye, ye
You've got a friend
If the sky above you
Should turn dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind should begin to blow
Keep you head together
And call my name out loud now
Soon you'll hear me knocking at you door
You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running, oh yes I will, to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall, ye
All you have to do is call...