Is government winning the war?

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE new strategic policy of P/Sr. Superintendent Rolly Saltat, newly assigned OIC at the Pangasinan Provincial Police Office, is the “1-2-3 Punch”!

It suggests a complete sound and fury action on the ground (especially with the word “Punch” attached to it, ehem) but a closer look tells us it actually merely capsulizes what a community police should be doing. Nothing new in there. No real targets identified.

PPPO’s spokesman P/Supt. Ferdinand De Asis himself sounded gung-ho about PPPO’s new strategy before the local media, particularly when he started to regale the local media about police’s gains in the campaign vs. illegal drugs but without delivering the core data to convince Pangasinenses that the government is, indeed, winning the war.

Let us be clear about what this war is all about.

It’s essentially about numbers and money. The two words make for the only language that the drug lords understand. They collect millions in the streets every day but curiously PPPO is silent about how many millions it had taken away from the drug lords every day.

The campaign can’t even hope to make a small dent even if they arrested 20 suspected drug pushers a day but seized only P10,000 worth of shabu.

*          *          *          *          *

A SCORECARD PLEASE! The next time Mr. De Asis makes an appearance to the media, we need to hear him talk in the language that drug lords only understand.

He should tell the province how much shabu was taken out of the streets, how much poorer have they made the drug lords in a day’s work. Simply stating the number of petty pushers arrested must be giving the drug lords something to smile about.

Then he must regale the province with specific data on conviction cases. Who and how many known big drug lords that have been collared and meted life sentences. And, who got away? Let’s have the true stories on the ground.

Better still, keep a regular scorecard in the PPPO’s website so people can validate the gains being reported to the public through the media.

*          *          *          *          *

SHOW THE NUMBERS AND WHERE. Curiously, Mr. De Asis said as many as 15 arrests or an average of 9 arrests are made daily. It’s definitely not impressive number if one considers that there are 38 towns and 4 cities, and the PPPO has not identified which and how many towns and cities are considered heavily drugs-infected?

If the suspected pushers were arrested in slightly infected town or city, what does that tell us? It means the more dangerous pushers are still victimizing families in the same highly-infected area.

It is like catching a mouse in the rice field while a snake is left to prey on the thousands in a chicken farm.

Is the government winning the war? Show us the numbers.

*          *          *          *          *

PENRO IN THE MIDDLE. Our editorial in this issue pointed out what was grossly overlooked and missed out in the discussion of the garbage problem in Binmaley.

It is the suspicion that the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office has been sleeping on the job over a decade.

Both the Binmaley LGU and the Philippine Army confirmed that the local government has been dumping its wastes in the army reservation since 1995. So the questions that truly beg answers are from PENRO, not from the LGU and the AFP.

Mayor Sammy Rosario already showed willingness to resolve the problem by backing down and decided to arrive at short and long term solutions. It meant, between the LGU and AFP, their problems can finally be resolved among themselves.

But what needs to be resolved is PENRO. Where was it all this time? Didn’t it even know that Binmaley was operating an uncontrolled open dumpsite, worse inside a military reservation camp? If it didn’t know about it all these years, I can imagine what else it doesn’t know about the work it is mandated to do.

*          *          *          *          *

ACCOUNTABILITY TO PEOPLE. While the PENRO is not operating under the provincial government but under DENR, it doesn’t remove the fact that it is accountable to the province for what it does and what it doesn’t do.

And while Guv Spines may be wracking his head off trying to keep a healthy populace with his slew of initiatives in the health and environment fronts, there is obviously a PENRO that is completely indifferent to him and what he does.

Guv Spines and his allies at the provincial board ought to start asking hard questions about what PENRO does besides planting trees.

*          *          *          *          *

A CANDIDATE OR NOT? What is Davao City Mayor and “reluctant presidential wannabe” Rody Duterte really up to? Is he or isn’t he what he claims to be – a candidate out to win, or a reluctant candidate who’s afraid to win.

At the rate he’s been issuing statements in his public appearances, it would seem that he is giving the nation all the reasons not to vote for him or is he?

First, he has been consistent about flip-flopping in his public announcement that he is running only to deny it the next day. The PUNCH was caught in that trap when he came to Dagupan. We reported his “go-go” statement only to hear him say in Baguio the following day that he was misquoted.

Then he announced his plan to declare a revolutionary government if he fails in his plan to completely reform the system. He will abolish the institutions, rewrite the constitution and set himself up as the benevolent dictator. He knew too well that the President Marcos’ martial law regime alienated himself when he instituted that one-man rule. Did he honestly think that a “strongman” image will endear him quickly to the public? Or was it his intention to scare his would be fans?

*          *          *          *          *

REASONS NOT TO VOTE. After thumbing his nose at human rights groups, he moved on to his next target – the Catholic Church hierarchy. He threatened to make population control a national policy in direct collision with the Church’s stand. But he knew too well, that such a will catch the ire of Christian groups as well, including the Iglesia ni Cristo.

Then he tells his fanatic supporters that he will throw in his hat if the surveys show he has 80 (?) percent of the numbers. So what exactly does he want to happen?

Unfortunately, Mr. Duterte’s leading light in Pangasinan, our own Fire Player Gonz Duque is not around to clarify what it is that his political patron is thinking.

Essentially, does Mr. Duterte want to be president of a peace loving nation or not?

Back to Homepage

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments