Punchline
Doing a Duterte in Dagupan
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE frustration of Dagupan police chief Romeo Caramat over the conduct of his campaign against drug dealers in the city is understandable. He is not gaining the upper hand, worse, the community in Sitio Silongan, in Bonuan Binloc is not taking him seriously, not the sitio leader, not the barangay officials. And yes, city hall.
While he must keep up with the image and perception that his station is “on top of the situation” in the fight vs. illegal drugs, I am certain he knows too well that he, and others after him, will not succeed because of one missing crucial element – the political will of the mayor and barangay officials to rid the city of drug dealers.
Political will means the determination to enforce and implement a strategy to achieve the objective faced with the prospect of losing votes in the next elections. In local parlance, it is spelled “Duterte”.
Davao City is immaculately clean and cleared of thieves, drug dealers, drunks and sexual molesters because of the uncompromising policy of the Dutertes, the father and daughter tandem that rule with iron fists. Theirs is the classic case of the good over bad, the Machiavellian way. It is a policy that makes the city’s chief of police the happiest and the envy of his peers in the PNP. After all, he has the most effective weapon in the station’s arsenal – the political will of the city officials.
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I don’t believe Mayor Benjie Lim is, or is capable of doing a Duterte today although he had demonstrated during his first term that he could be one. He impressed many when he had the ambulant street vendors chased off the sidewalks and streets on a regular basis. Sure that political will cost him votes in 2004 but he won nonetheless.
But unfortunately for Mr. Caramat, it doesn’t seem like Mr. Lim is about to risk anything in 2013. Given that situation, can Mr. Caramat still make the difference for the city?
I pray he still will but right now I also don’t believe he will be taken seriously by anyone because he continues to tolerate illegal gambling in the city. The “drop ball” has proliferated in the city, many of which are a stone’s throw from police outposts. If he is not inclined to enforce the law against illegal gambling, it only bolsters the public perception that he can made “to dance to the tune” for illegal drugs as well.
Indeed, if Mr. Caramat can be dictated upon by gambling lords backed by politicos, the druglords, backed by some city officials, could not be far behind in getting him to see things their way.
This explains the initial attempts to harass his operatives by suing them in court, the initial salvo to show him what he’s up against. The druglords do not fear him, much less take his threats seriously. They think they know his kind which is why the community in Sitio Silongan will remain a hotbed in spite of him.
Again the question: Will and can the no-nonsense police officer Romeo Caramat still stand up to make a difference in this benighted city?
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TEMPTING INTERNATIONAL BACKLASH. If things proceed as one normally expects of the bureaucracy in resolving conflicts tainted with politics, as we are seeing in the Seafood Processing Plant imbroglio, it would not be farfetched to think that the Dagupan City government and the Department of Agriculture could soon find themselves in the middle of an embarrassing exchange of diplomatic notes between the South Korean government and the Philippine government.
If no decision is reached to direct the resumption of the plant’s operations soon, they can expect a diplomatic note from the South Korean government inquiring into the unreasonable suspension of the operations of the plant which it generously funded without much ado after commitments of support were given by the DA and the city of Dagupan.
By their seeming indifference, both the Lim administration and the DA/BFAR officials have evidently overlooked if not completely forgotten that the plant ‘s operation is not just a local issue but a project with international implications.
If a diplomatic row erupts because of the disinterest of the both the city government and the DA/BFAR officials to comply with the spirit of the agreement inked with the South Korean agency, then they only have themselves to blame for being parochial.
In the same vein, it doesn’t speak well of the city council for refusing so far to call on the city hall and BFAR to direct the resumption of regular operations of the plant. In case the city councilors have forgotten, it was they who endorsed the entry of BFAR as manager of the plant.
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SHOWBIZ TIME? Just as I feared the prosecution panel finally rested its case and will no longer produce evidence for five of the eight articles of impeachment. And worse, members of the prosecution panel are now fighting each other on the manner the presentation of evidence was terminated.
This does not augur well for the prosecution of the case. It’s bad enough that what was earlier bandied as the smoking gun, referring to the bank records of CJ Corona, is now labeled as a dubious document surreptitiously and illegally obtained from an employee of the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas. It was the main documentary evidence that the prosecution is hoping would clinch a guilty verdict for CJ Corona. What a letdown to the many who were made to believe that PNoy and his allies had the goods on CJ Corona at the height of the publicity war prior to and during the impeachment.
The long list of witnesses that the prosecution presented ostensibly to support the eight articles was even a dud. It appears today that the congressmen merely went on a name-dropping spree to add to the scare tactic to force CJ Corona to resign. It went pfffftt. This was evident when many of the few witnesses presented turned out to be hostile witnesses to the delight of the defense panel.
Not even the parade of prominent lawyers commissioned by the prosecution panel to help lock-in a guilty verdict were effective in the face of the scarcity of solid evidence for the case.
Then, I suspect that Atty. Vitaliano Aguirre’s sign of protest, his “Hear no evil” antics, over Sen. Miriam Santiago’s endless harangue and vitriol was as much an expression of frustration and exasperation over the pitiful state of the prosecution, his team. He knew whence the senator was coming from but she just kept rubbing it in. However, I am sure he was counting his blessings as well that he did not end up as the guy who has to sleep and live with her forever.
It will be the defense panel’s opportunity to prove its mettle next week. Will it also do what the prosecution did? I sure hope not because the whole trial would end up as the worst and most unkind cut against the nation that was made to believe that justice can be meted to the accused. An inconclusive defense, after a faltering prosecution, will only result in the perception that it was nothing but an expensive showbiz time for the lawyers, congressmen, and senators at the expense of the people.
Our new batch of lawyers can certainly learn volumes of lessons from this trial – how not to be an embarrassment to the legal profession.
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HAPPY DAYS ARE BACK! While the Dagupan City Council is still trying to make up its mind whether to invite the NBI to investigate the “selling” of premium beachfronts in Bonuan Binloc, there are reports that more areas are now being fenced off on the strength of spurious documents that bear the signatures of the city mayor, the city administrator and the barangay chairman.
It seems someone in the syndicate has spread the word that the sale is sanctioned by the city hall and that there is no truth to media reports that there will be an investigation.
More on this next week.
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