"If you know something is morally reprehensible, then it is your moral obligation to stop it as soon as possible."
--Jane Velez-Mitchell
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- As a true-blooded Ilonggo and community journalist, I will never allow merchants of lies, canards, and chaos to destroy the good name of Iloilo City in the Philippines built by our forefathers.
I will never sit down and act like hackneyed kibitzer while my city and our leaders are being sledge-hammered by purveyors of half-truth, intrigues, and political vendetta.
The most "shabulized" city in the Philippines? Look first at Ozamis, war-torn Marawi, and other big metropolis in Metro Manila where shabu warehouses have yielded billions of worth of illegal substances.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog engaged in narco-politics? The cheapest Goebbels-inspired obloquy and hyperbole ever floated with no basis at all in truth, in fact, and in reality! Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
Like any other Ilonggos, I have a moral obligation to defend my city and its leaders--regardless of their political and religious affiliations--from external moronic and destructive yet unfounded accusations and innuendos, which, if left unchallenged and uncorrected, would harm the Ilonggos' moral fiber and create irreparable mayhem on their culture and psyche as peace-loving citizens.
In hours of great moral crisis, we are not supposed to play deaf, blind and mute. The hottest place in hell, according to Dante, is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
NECESSARY
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, exhorted Edmund Burke, is for good men to do nothing.
Ilonggos are decent, educated, religious, intrepid, generous, and humble. They have produced great leaders and contributed abundantly in the political, economic, religious, and cultural evolution of the Filipino race.
If our family, community, culture, morality, values and honor are under attack by a horde of cantankerous and homicidal maniacs, we can't afford to remain neutral.
When we do nothing and think nothing while our reputations are being torn to shreds by voodoo practitioners, pagans, nincompoops, backdoor players, con artists, darkroom operators, spin doctors, dicey crime-busters, rumormongers, and pseudo-moral crusaders, we allow evil to win.
Silence and apathy become our imminent Waterloo.
I love Iloilo City, the "City of Love", the Athens of the Philippines and cradle of heroism and common sense. And I am proud of our folklore and heritage.
I love and support our elected leaders even if I criticize their faults and imperfections. (Some of the public figures who tasted "terror" from my mighty pen were bosom friends if not kumare and kumpare. In journalism, friendship is one thing; commitment to uphold the truth and decency and serve the public through the mass media is another thing.)
HEALTHY
Constructive criticism is healthy in a democratic state. When we criticize our public officials, we don't destroy them. It's not something akin to bullying.
We help locate and discover their errors and shortcomings so they won't repeat the same mistakes again. Criticism helps strengthen our public officials' character and efficiency; and if they are not immature and uncultured, we end up as partners in nation building.
It is no longer constructive when we wish--and even sharply "pray"--for our public officials' destruction through violent death or assassination over imagined crimes and litany of sins only the ruffians and dolts in the Alfred Hitchcock films are capable of committing.
We have evolved by leaps and bounds since the time when hatred and intrigues were used as basis to execute heads of states and prominent monarchy damsels, queens and kings like Marie Antoinette, falsely accused of uttering "Let them eat cake" when the French people had no more bread to eat.
SOLID
We impeach characters based on remarkable and solid facts, not innuendos and hearsays. We observe due process and acknowledge that after presenting both sides of the coin, only then can we ascertain the chaffs from the grains.
When we are frustrated and not satisfied with our leaders' performance, we don't shoot from the hips and injure bystanders.
Manchester Guardian reminds us that "Comment is free, but facts are sacred."
Even in faraway United States, I continue to chronicle events in our locality from time to time; I have never abandoned my crusade and advocacy for a peaceful community and graft-free government.
As a blogger, columnist and correspondent, I consider myself as an active participant in the modern Agora, which has expanded in the social media since the Oracle of Delphi decreed that Socrates was the wisest person in Athens for helping reform the society as a social, political, and cultural gadfly.
SHIELD
My moral obligation to shield Iloilo City and its leaders from imminent political havoc and moral decay brought by the current dyzzing zarzuela on anti-dope war includes an unflinching committment to shatter the myth of absolutism that pervades the national leadership.
Any overt or covert police raid in any establishment and residential area--owned by a public official or ordinary Juan de la Cruz-- not covered by lawful order or without any legal basis should be considered null and void ab initio.
No amount of hoary justification can supersede the rule of law.
Appeal to the rapscallions in the Philippine National Police and their over-excited minions in the ruling political party: don't do in Iloilo City what you did in Albuera, Leyte and Ozamis City. History will be unkind.
Showing posts with label #Philippine National Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Philippine National Police. Show all posts
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Sunday, June 25, 2017
By not killing a single cop, NPA rebs embarrass gov't
"My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom."
-- William Tecumseh Sherman
-- William Tecumseh Sherman
By Alex P. Vidal
FAIRFAX, Virginia -- Enemies of the state can score a moral victory even without killing a single police or army.
This was manifested by the brave New People's Army (NPA) cadres who raided the Maasin Police Station in Iloilo province in the Philippines on June 18.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been portraying NPA rebels as ruthless bandits who robbed and killed unarmed civilians in remote villages.
If the AFP could not stymie the leftist rebels in actual combat, they managed to clobber them in propaganda war what with their vast technological and media resources, let alone plant derogatory imputations against the outlawed armed guerillas in the people's minds.
But the rebels belied all the negative propaganda levelled against them when they didn't touch a single cop with a ten-foot pole during the June 18 blitzkrieg.
They could have annihilated all the nine cops caught flat-footed.
This was manifested by the brave New People's Army (NPA) cadres who raided the Maasin Police Station in Iloilo province in the Philippines on June 18.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been portraying NPA rebels as ruthless bandits who robbed and killed unarmed civilians in remote villages.
If the AFP could not stymie the leftist rebels in actual combat, they managed to clobber them in propaganda war what with their vast technological and media resources, let alone plant derogatory imputations against the outlawed armed guerillas in the people's minds.
But the rebels belied all the negative propaganda levelled against them when they didn't touch a single cop with a ten-foot pole during the June 18 blitzkrieg.
They could have annihilated all the nine cops caught flat-footed.
MONSTERS
The NPA showed to all and sundry that they were not monsters, after all, as portrayed by government forces.
That they, too, are merciful human beings who would not kill people without any justifiable reason.
And the government tagged them as "terrororists."
A terrorist, in the mind of an ordinary citizen, plants bombs, shoots at anyone in sight, and create mayhem in society.
A terrorist commits mass murders and kills including women and children.
A terrorist shoots a cop and any military officer at any given opportunity.
Instead, the NPA raiders just immobilized the uniformed policemen after neutralizing them as they seized several high-powered firearms that infuriated Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Reynaldo "Bato" Dela Rosa, who visited Massin recently.
BLOW
It was a major blow against the Duterte administration and a grand moral victory for the NPA.
Here's a case where an enemy raid became celebrated and became talk of the town nationwide, but not a single casualty was reported on the part of authorities.
Some people will now start to doubt if the NPA rebels are really merciless mass murderers and terrorists.
Joma Sison is really brilliant.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Overacting city police chief
"There is no overacting, only untrue acting."
--STELLAN SKASGARD
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Wonder why until now news in the Philippines is still being dominated by alleged EJKs (extra-judicial killings) amid the brutal campaign initiated by the Duterte administration against the narcotics?
Even if there will be killings everyday, shabu dealers nationwide won't totally close shop.
By hook or by crook they have to "push" their illegal substance even if via guerilla tactic. They can't throw away to the dustbin or flush in the toilets kilos of shabu already in their possessions.
If they can't remit the money, their suppliers will kill them. They are actually caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
They have no choice but to engage law enforcers in a cat-and- mouse-type game and risk their lives, otherwise, they will lose their main livelihood. Otherwise, they will be killed by their own partners in crime gangland style.
-o0o-
One thing more, many street-level shabu dealers are unemployed and selling illegal drugs is their only way out of poverty.
They are aware that many of them have already been executed like animals ever since Pres. Duterte declared an all-out war against illegal drugs; but they are unfazed.
They fear poverty more and their ruthless suppliers than bullets from the raiding police teams.
In shabu business, everybody is involved down in the barangay level--housewives, husbands, their children (used as whistle-blowers for police raids if not couriers), and some village officials.
The lives of many drug addicts have already been destroyed long before they were mowed down by bullets--via EJK or otherwise.
The problem on illegal drugs can't be halted even if dead bodies will continue to stockpile in the dumpsites and public plazas when we wake up in the next day.
-o0o-
MANY Ilonggos believed that Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) Director Remus Zacharias Canieso "over reacted" when he "summoned" to the ICPO the manager and service crew of a hardware inside a big mall in Iloilo City on April 7 after he was accidentally hit by a pushcart while inside the hardware earlier.
Inside the ICPO, Canieso, who was supposed to be transferred to Aklan if the Iloilo City Council did not ask PNP Chief Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa to retain him in his present post, reportedly lectured the manager and service crew to be cautious if they are inside the hardware as they might hurt not only adults like him but children, as well.
Canieso, who did not suffer any major injury, could have talked to the manager and the service crew right there inside the hardware after the incident.
Or smile and forget about the minor episode, which occured every now and then in other shopping centers and crowded places. Canieso would have earned praises, especially if the hardware management found out who he is.
If it happened to an ordinary civilian laborer, the incident would have been shrugged off and forgotten.
But because he is a city police chief, Canieso had to use his power and authority to inconvenience the hardware employees into "reporting" to his office like they were his subordinates.
He was sending a curt message.
--STELLAN SKASGARD
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Wonder why until now news in the Philippines is still being dominated by alleged EJKs (extra-judicial killings) amid the brutal campaign initiated by the Duterte administration against the narcotics?
Even if there will be killings everyday, shabu dealers nationwide won't totally close shop.
By hook or by crook they have to "push" their illegal substance even if via guerilla tactic. They can't throw away to the dustbin or flush in the toilets kilos of shabu already in their possessions.
If they can't remit the money, their suppliers will kill them. They are actually caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
They have no choice but to engage law enforcers in a cat-and- mouse-type game and risk their lives, otherwise, they will lose their main livelihood. Otherwise, they will be killed by their own partners in crime gangland style.
-o0o-
One thing more, many street-level shabu dealers are unemployed and selling illegal drugs is their only way out of poverty.
They are aware that many of them have already been executed like animals ever since Pres. Duterte declared an all-out war against illegal drugs; but they are unfazed.
They fear poverty more and their ruthless suppliers than bullets from the raiding police teams.
In shabu business, everybody is involved down in the barangay level--housewives, husbands, their children (used as whistle-blowers for police raids if not couriers), and some village officials.
The lives of many drug addicts have already been destroyed long before they were mowed down by bullets--via EJK or otherwise.
The problem on illegal drugs can't be halted even if dead bodies will continue to stockpile in the dumpsites and public plazas when we wake up in the next day.
-o0o-
MANY Ilonggos believed that Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) Director Remus Zacharias Canieso "over reacted" when he "summoned" to the ICPO the manager and service crew of a hardware inside a big mall in Iloilo City on April 7 after he was accidentally hit by a pushcart while inside the hardware earlier.
Inside the ICPO, Canieso, who was supposed to be transferred to Aklan if the Iloilo City Council did not ask PNP Chief Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa to retain him in his present post, reportedly lectured the manager and service crew to be cautious if they are inside the hardware as they might hurt not only adults like him but children, as well.
Canieso, who did not suffer any major injury, could have talked to the manager and the service crew right there inside the hardware after the incident.
Or smile and forget about the minor episode, which occured every now and then in other shopping centers and crowded places. Canieso would have earned praises, especially if the hardware management found out who he is.
If it happened to an ordinary civilian laborer, the incident would have been shrugged off and forgotten.
But because he is a city police chief, Canieso had to use his power and authority to inconvenience the hardware employees into "reporting" to his office like they were his subordinates.
He was sending a curt message.
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Let's not condemn the PNP yet
"I have no hatred for cops. I have hatred for racists and brutal people, but not necessarily the cops. The cops are just doing what they're told to do." -- ICE T
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- We can't blame the families of victims of police brutality. Their hatred toward our law enforcers is only a microcosm of a sick society's macrocosm.
Which explains why our national police force is once again on the brink of total destruction.
And our cops have low morale now that calls to abolish the Philippine National Police (PNP) are loudly girdling like Hercules' wrath.
If we have family members, neighbors or friends who are connected with the PNP, let's give them moral support.
Let's not crucify them yet; let's not treat them like dregs.
The likes of Sta. Isabel and Dumlao, among other principal accused in the slaughter of a Korean trader, are only rats in a house.
NOT ALL
Not all those who live in the house are rats.
Not all members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) are hoodlums and scalawags.
When we want to get rid of rats, we either use a mouse trap or Dora rat killer and Racumin. We don't burn the entire house.
We don't abolish the PNP only because some cops are dishonest and criminals. All paradise have their own shares of serpents. All forests are infested with snakes.
Even the church is not clean. There are rascal priests and cardinals of ill repute. Some saints in heaven have ugly past.
We still believe that majority of the PNP's 160,000 personnel are dedicated, sincere, hard-working, and trustworthy.
It's not fair to flush the entire organization down the toilet only because of a few feces.
GOOD
We know a lot of good, courteous and well-mannered PNP personnel in Western Visayas where we grew up.
Many of these cops --men and women -- are content with their salary and regard their uniform with pride and glory. They come from respectable, religious and honorable families.
Everywhere in the Philippines we can still meet cops who are proud to wear their uniform and are not distracted by the negative tag alluded the organization as a result of shenanigans committed by a handful.
Anywhere in the Philippines we can still hear stories of heroism and acts of valor committed by our cops that are not given prominent media attention either because they shun publicity and choose to remain anonymous, or we in the media are only guilty of negligence and indifference for our failure to give importance to these great deeds by our maligned cops.
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- We can't blame the families of victims of police brutality. Their hatred toward our law enforcers is only a microcosm of a sick society's macrocosm.
Which explains why our national police force is once again on the brink of total destruction.
And our cops have low morale now that calls to abolish the Philippine National Police (PNP) are loudly girdling like Hercules' wrath.
If we have family members, neighbors or friends who are connected with the PNP, let's give them moral support.
Let's not crucify them yet; let's not treat them like dregs.
The likes of Sta. Isabel and Dumlao, among other principal accused in the slaughter of a Korean trader, are only rats in a house.
NOT ALL
Not all those who live in the house are rats.
Not all members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) are hoodlums and scalawags.
When we want to get rid of rats, we either use a mouse trap or Dora rat killer and Racumin. We don't burn the entire house.
We don't abolish the PNP only because some cops are dishonest and criminals. All paradise have their own shares of serpents. All forests are infested with snakes.
Even the church is not clean. There are rascal priests and cardinals of ill repute. Some saints in heaven have ugly past.
We still believe that majority of the PNP's 160,000 personnel are dedicated, sincere, hard-working, and trustworthy.
It's not fair to flush the entire organization down the toilet only because of a few feces.
GOOD
We know a lot of good, courteous and well-mannered PNP personnel in Western Visayas where we grew up.
Many of these cops --men and women -- are content with their salary and regard their uniform with pride and glory. They come from respectable, religious and honorable families.
Everywhere in the Philippines we can still meet cops who are proud to wear their uniform and are not distracted by the negative tag alluded the organization as a result of shenanigans committed by a handful.
Anywhere in the Philippines we can still hear stories of heroism and acts of valor committed by our cops that are not given prominent media attention either because they shun publicity and choose to remain anonymous, or we in the media are only guilty of negligence and indifference for our failure to give importance to these great deeds by our maligned cops.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Iloilo dads should get their hands off 'Bato' case
"There are three major social issues that this country is struggling with: education, poverty, and drugs. Two of them we talk about, and one of them we don't."
-- Steven Soderbergh
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The night before the Iloilo City Council in the Philippines unanimously passed a resolution in its regular session on January 30 "urging" Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa to stay put, President Rodrigo Duterte announced in a haste press conference in Manila that he had rejected Dela Rosa's resignation.
Had Duterte let Bato go and announced it in the press conference on January 29, the Iloilo City councilors would have nothing to "urge" from the top cop in as far as his stint in the PNP was concerned.
Either proponents would revise the resolution from "urging Bato not to resign" or to "urging President Duterte to reinstate Bato."
Or they would forget about the Bato resolution and remove it from the regular session's agenda.
NECESSARY
Was the Bato resolution, penned by Councilor Joshua Alim, necessary?
It may be wise and symptomatic but not necessary, to say the least.
As a national figure, Bato has been the subject of intense discussions in the House of Representatives with some solons calling for his resignation in the light of the kidnapping and murder of a Korean businessman perpetrated by policemen inside the Camp Crame.
Newspapers, news websites, TV networks have been tackling issues about Bato. Even during the Miss Universe Pageant, Bato was among the "top grossers" in the news and social media.
Bato's fate is too broad for a local legislature like the Iloilo City Council.
Too many cooks will spoil the broth.
Instead of joining the fray in complicated national issues, the city council will look good and earn more pogi points if it will instead focus on local issues.
DINAGYANG
Like an "urgent" resolution commending government agencies, city and provincial officials, private individuals, participating schools, sponsors, choreographers, among other unsung heroes responsible for the successful staging of the just-concluded 2017 Dinagyang Festival.
There's a myriad of socio-economic, health, business, education, political and environmental issues that affect the life of local populace.
More pressing issues like the success or failure of smoking ban on public places, malnutrition and housing programs in villages, the reported increase in number of AIDS, murder, and rape cases.
The Department of Tourism's (DOT) efforts to push for chartered flights between Taiwan and the Iloilo International Airport in the town of Cabatuan, Paraw Regatta 2017 preparations, Iloilo City's aim to become "City of Excellence", real estate boom, investment and business expansion and opportunities, among other local issues.
Meanwhile, if there was one thing significant about the Gen. Bato Dela Rosa resolution, it was the city council's avowed display of solidarity behind the Duterte administration's "strong campaign against illegal drugs and criminalities."
-- Steven Soderbergh
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The night before the Iloilo City Council in the Philippines unanimously passed a resolution in its regular session on January 30 "urging" Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa to stay put, President Rodrigo Duterte announced in a haste press conference in Manila that he had rejected Dela Rosa's resignation.
Had Duterte let Bato go and announced it in the press conference on January 29, the Iloilo City councilors would have nothing to "urge" from the top cop in as far as his stint in the PNP was concerned.
Either proponents would revise the resolution from "urging Bato not to resign" or to "urging President Duterte to reinstate Bato."
Or they would forget about the Bato resolution and remove it from the regular session's agenda.
NECESSARY
Was the Bato resolution, penned by Councilor Joshua Alim, necessary?
It may be wise and symptomatic but not necessary, to say the least.
As a national figure, Bato has been the subject of intense discussions in the House of Representatives with some solons calling for his resignation in the light of the kidnapping and murder of a Korean businessman perpetrated by policemen inside the Camp Crame.
Newspapers, news websites, TV networks have been tackling issues about Bato. Even during the Miss Universe Pageant, Bato was among the "top grossers" in the news and social media.
Bato's fate is too broad for a local legislature like the Iloilo City Council.
Too many cooks will spoil the broth.
Instead of joining the fray in complicated national issues, the city council will look good and earn more pogi points if it will instead focus on local issues.
DINAGYANG
Like an "urgent" resolution commending government agencies, city and provincial officials, private individuals, participating schools, sponsors, choreographers, among other unsung heroes responsible for the successful staging of the just-concluded 2017 Dinagyang Festival.
There's a myriad of socio-economic, health, business, education, political and environmental issues that affect the life of local populace.
More pressing issues like the success or failure of smoking ban on public places, malnutrition and housing programs in villages, the reported increase in number of AIDS, murder, and rape cases.
The Department of Tourism's (DOT) efforts to push for chartered flights between Taiwan and the Iloilo International Airport in the town of Cabatuan, Paraw Regatta 2017 preparations, Iloilo City's aim to become "City of Excellence", real estate boom, investment and business expansion and opportunities, among other local issues.
Meanwhile, if there was one thing significant about the Gen. Bato Dela Rosa resolution, it was the city council's avowed display of solidarity behind the Duterte administration's "strong campaign against illegal drugs and criminalities."
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Double standard in war vs illegal drugs
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
― Voltaire
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Here's another case of "double standard" when it comes to dealing with characters involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Philippines.
If the suspect is a street-level drug peddler or drug addict, he is killed in a "shootout" with lawmen "after resisting arrest."
If the suspect is a drug lord, he is accorded a "special treatment" by allowing him to face the media and destroy the reputations of authorities allegedly receiving protection money from the syndicate.
To add insult, the drug lord could escape prosecution if his revelations on the payola scandal would be proven based on the reports below.
Reports from Negros Occidental in the Philippines referred to one Ricky Serenio, 34, of Barangay Singcang-Airport, Bacolod City as "a drug lord under the target list of Negros Island Police Regional Office (PRO)."
Serenio, who has been placed under PRO's witness protection program after he named several members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), court employees, and media personalities as among those who received regular "payola" from the "boss" he refused to name.
DISMISS
Being placed under the program could reportedly help dismiss the cases against Serenio, "if he can prove that his revelations are true."
Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban, PRO acting regional director, said Serenio, who is under the custody of the Regional Special Operations Task Group, is facing charges for illegal possession of firearms and explosives after police recovered from him a .45 caliber pistol with magazine containing five live ammunition and a fragmentation grenade when he was served with an arrest warrant for grave coercion at Rizal Street, Barangay Zone 9 in Talisay City on January 8, 2017.
Why place Serenio under the witness protection program if the evidence is sufficient to convict him in a fair trial?
If the cases filed against him will eventually be dismissed only because his revelations were proven, the public trust and confidence on our law enforcers will definitely be eroded.
When small fries are trampled like grasses and the big fishes get away with murder, it will defeat the "all-out war" campaign of President Duterte against illegal drug trafficking.
― Voltaire
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Here's another case of "double standard" when it comes to dealing with characters involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Philippines.
If the suspect is a street-level drug peddler or drug addict, he is killed in a "shootout" with lawmen "after resisting arrest."
If the suspect is a drug lord, he is accorded a "special treatment" by allowing him to face the media and destroy the reputations of authorities allegedly receiving protection money from the syndicate.
To add insult, the drug lord could escape prosecution if his revelations on the payola scandal would be proven based on the reports below.
Reports from Negros Occidental in the Philippines referred to one Ricky Serenio, 34, of Barangay Singcang-Airport, Bacolod City as "a drug lord under the target list of Negros Island Police Regional Office (PRO)."
Serenio, who has been placed under PRO's witness protection program after he named several members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), court employees, and media personalities as among those who received regular "payola" from the "boss" he refused to name.
DISMISS
Being placed under the program could reportedly help dismiss the cases against Serenio, "if he can prove that his revelations are true."
Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban, PRO acting regional director, said Serenio, who is under the custody of the Regional Special Operations Task Group, is facing charges for illegal possession of firearms and explosives after police recovered from him a .45 caliber pistol with magazine containing five live ammunition and a fragmentation grenade when he was served with an arrest warrant for grave coercion at Rizal Street, Barangay Zone 9 in Talisay City on January 8, 2017.
Why place Serenio under the witness protection program if the evidence is sufficient to convict him in a fair trial?
If the cases filed against him will eventually be dismissed only because his revelations were proven, the public trust and confidence on our law enforcers will definitely be eroded.
When small fries are trampled like grasses and the big fishes get away with murder, it will defeat the "all-out war" campaign of President Duterte against illegal drug trafficking.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Iloilo City Councilor Ganzon 'usurps' functions of mayor, cops
“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”
―Tacitus
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW JERSEY -- It's the job of the police to warn gangsters and their leaders not to create mayhem in public. Or round them up.
They are paid to run after hooligans and other troublemakers in society.
To maintain peace and order, police are tasked to neutralize any group engaged in criminal and terroristic activities.
If peace and order worsens, the city mayor may order the police to safeguard the civilians and protect government properties.
Police are mandated to use force (but not excessively) if the situation warrants.
Although they are also trained for physical confrontation, police may negotiate for peace to avert a spill over of violence and bloodshed.
Under the Local Government Code, the executive department, or the city mayor and provincial governor, with law enforcement at their disposal, wield awesome power.
FEUD
In Iloilo City in the Philippines, a city councilor, "worried" by the increasing dangers posed by feuding gangsters in the metropolis, wanted to act both as city mayor and police.
As chair of the city council committee on police matters, Councilor Jeffrey Ganzon has asked Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) acting director, Senior Supt. Remus Zacharias Canieso, to provide him with police escorts as he planned to meet leaders of the 25 to 32 gangs operating in Iloilo City.
Ganzon wanted to personally "appeal" to the rowdy teenagers to stop creating trouble. He also wanted to talk to their parents. Nice.
In hindsight, Ganzon's gesture deserves an accolade. He did not ask to be paid for the heroic act. What's wrong if he wants to volunteer for the field work?
We were surprised though that nobody from among Ganzon's colleagues reminded him during their regular session last January 9 that dealing with problems on street gangs was the job of Senior Supt. Canieso and his cops.
RISK
Members of the legislative branch gobble up their time in debates to hammer out quality resolutions and ordinances.
They aren't elected to risk their lives marching on lairs of street ruffians and strike a deal with minions of the underworld.
Only in Iloilo City where a member of the local legislative body appointed himself as "peace emissary", bypassing the executive office or city mayor.
He also "demoted" himself to act as foot patrol cop (with escorts to boot) for a tete-a-tete with bedraggled youngsters.
Because Ganzon reportedly plans to run for city mayor in 2019 (his supporters believe he will win if his opponent is his one-time tormentor, Vice Mayor Joe Espinosa III), Ilonggos should expect to see him perform more extra jobs that would boost his public image and unwittingly "usurp" the functions of police and city mayor "in aid of legislation."
―Tacitus
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW JERSEY -- It's the job of the police to warn gangsters and their leaders not to create mayhem in public. Or round them up.
They are paid to run after hooligans and other troublemakers in society.
To maintain peace and order, police are tasked to neutralize any group engaged in criminal and terroristic activities.
If peace and order worsens, the city mayor may order the police to safeguard the civilians and protect government properties.
Police are mandated to use force (but not excessively) if the situation warrants.
Although they are also trained for physical confrontation, police may negotiate for peace to avert a spill over of violence and bloodshed.
Under the Local Government Code, the executive department, or the city mayor and provincial governor, with law enforcement at their disposal, wield awesome power.
FEUD
In Iloilo City in the Philippines, a city councilor, "worried" by the increasing dangers posed by feuding gangsters in the metropolis, wanted to act both as city mayor and police.
As chair of the city council committee on police matters, Councilor Jeffrey Ganzon has asked Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) acting director, Senior Supt. Remus Zacharias Canieso, to provide him with police escorts as he planned to meet leaders of the 25 to 32 gangs operating in Iloilo City.
Ganzon wanted to personally "appeal" to the rowdy teenagers to stop creating trouble. He also wanted to talk to their parents. Nice.
In hindsight, Ganzon's gesture deserves an accolade. He did not ask to be paid for the heroic act. What's wrong if he wants to volunteer for the field work?
We were surprised though that nobody from among Ganzon's colleagues reminded him during their regular session last January 9 that dealing with problems on street gangs was the job of Senior Supt. Canieso and his cops.
RISK
Members of the legislative branch gobble up their time in debates to hammer out quality resolutions and ordinances.
They aren't elected to risk their lives marching on lairs of street ruffians and strike a deal with minions of the underworld.
Only in Iloilo City where a member of the local legislative body appointed himself as "peace emissary", bypassing the executive office or city mayor.
He also "demoted" himself to act as foot patrol cop (with escorts to boot) for a tete-a-tete with bedraggled youngsters.
Because Ganzon reportedly plans to run for city mayor in 2019 (his supporters believe he will win if his opponent is his one-time tormentor, Vice Mayor Joe Espinosa III), Ilonggos should expect to see him perform more extra jobs that would boost his public image and unwittingly "usurp" the functions of police and city mayor "in aid of legislation."
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Sealing off police guns a stupid edict
"Elevate those guns a little lower." -- Andrew Jackson
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW JERSEY -- We laud Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronaldo "Bato" Dela Rosa for finally breaking the usual practice of sealing off policemen's guns ahead of the New Year festivities.
We were among those in the media who criticized the move, which was the brainchild of past PNP leadership starting during the time of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph "Erap" Estrada.
We considered the order as "unnecessary" and "suicidal."
When the guns of our lawmen were sealed off, they could not respond to emergency cases or crimes. They would be like sitting ducks if armed criminals or terrorists attacked them vice versa.
The purpose of sealing off their guns was to prevent them from firing indiscriminately during New Year celebration.
This was on top of the "stern" warning from the PNP hierarchy that they would be dealt with accordingly if they used their guns to celebrate New Year.
PROFESSIONAL
Stern or whatever warning is also not necessary for professional cops or military men. Only scalawags and bad eggs will disobey and ignore lawful orders.
Each year since the order was made, reports showed that many innocent civilians, some of them children, were injured and killed after being hit by stray bullets fired during the New Year's eve.
Either the stray bullets came from the firearms of some rogue cops or undisciplined military personnel who ignored the order from their higher command, or from the guns of trigger-happy civilians.
There are many loose firearms in the hands of drunken maniacs who don't give a hoot if innocent bystanders and children are injured or killed as long as they will fire these guns during the New Year revelry.
DOUBLE
Police should double their efforts to round them up as preventive measure. There should be no ifs and buts for those caught in possession of these unlicensed guns.
There should be no exemptions. No padrino or political considerations. No palakasan. No kumpare or kumare system.
Eliot Spitzer once said: "Yes, people pull the trigger - but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror."
In fact, even without a New Year celebration or election gun ban, possession of loose firearms is illegal and punishable by imprisonment.
An ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of cure.
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW JERSEY -- We laud Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronaldo "Bato" Dela Rosa for finally breaking the usual practice of sealing off policemen's guns ahead of the New Year festivities.
We were among those in the media who criticized the move, which was the brainchild of past PNP leadership starting during the time of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph "Erap" Estrada.
We considered the order as "unnecessary" and "suicidal."
When the guns of our lawmen were sealed off, they could not respond to emergency cases or crimes. They would be like sitting ducks if armed criminals or terrorists attacked them vice versa.
The purpose of sealing off their guns was to prevent them from firing indiscriminately during New Year celebration.
This was on top of the "stern" warning from the PNP hierarchy that they would be dealt with accordingly if they used their guns to celebrate New Year.
PROFESSIONAL
Stern or whatever warning is also not necessary for professional cops or military men. Only scalawags and bad eggs will disobey and ignore lawful orders.
Each year since the order was made, reports showed that many innocent civilians, some of them children, were injured and killed after being hit by stray bullets fired during the New Year's eve.
Either the stray bullets came from the firearms of some rogue cops or undisciplined military personnel who ignored the order from their higher command, or from the guns of trigger-happy civilians.
There are many loose firearms in the hands of drunken maniacs who don't give a hoot if innocent bystanders and children are injured or killed as long as they will fire these guns during the New Year revelry.
DOUBLE
Police should double their efforts to round them up as preventive measure. There should be no ifs and buts for those caught in possession of these unlicensed guns.
There should be no exemptions. No padrino or political considerations. No palakasan. No kumpare or kumare system.
Eliot Spitzer once said: "Yes, people pull the trigger - but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror."
In fact, even without a New Year celebration or election gun ban, possession of loose firearms is illegal and punishable by imprisonment.
An ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of cure.
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