Editorial
Take charge!
The past week certainly was a “feel good” week for the province’s police officers. They harvested medals and citations for their feats and accomplishments in the fight against kidnappers and pursuit of justice.
Indeed, congratulations are in order to our men and women in the police force led by P/Sr. Supt. Percival Barba. Special mention must be made of P/Supt. Eric E. Noble, police chief of Sta. Barbara, and Police Officer 3 Arturo DC Melchor, they who have been named as two of the country’s best police officers by the prestigious program “Country’s Outstanding Policemen in Service (COPS) sponsored by the Metrobank Foundation. They make Pangasinan truly proud.
But having said that, it must be stated that the peace and order situation in the province still leaves much to be desired. The series of killings, as already echoed by Rep. Rachel Arenas, has become so alarming that residents no longer feel safe leaving their homes, walking or driving through streets, knowing that services of hired guns can be had by one’s political enemies or business competitors, or by angry associates or friends at the cost of a cheap cellphone.
The community certainly has cause for worry if Mr. Barba chooses to consider the recent killing of a young nurse by motorcycle-riding men merely an isolated case. Having an unarmed dutiful nurse killed may be an “isolated” circumstance but that the perpetrators are motorcycle-riding men armed with handguns is certainly not an isolated case. Most of the killings were obviously done by persons unknown to the victims and by those who are quite comfortable accomplishing their deadly missions on board stolen motorcycles. It doesn’t take one to be a rocket scientist to understand what’s happening. There is evidently a crime syndicate operating in the province offering services of death squads and it’s frightening to note that the police is not even half-convinced that it is so.
The failure of the police to stop the series of killings by motorcycle-riding men denotes the failure of the intelligence network of the police. That not a single suspect among the motorcycle-riding assassins could be traced to this day has given the community reasons to speculate that there is police protection provided the syndicates.
Governor Amado Espino Jr., is undoubtedly trailblazing in development projects for the education, health, tourism and agriculture sectors. However, if nothing is done to stop the guns-for-hire syndicates in the province soon, his legacy will only speak of the time when Pangasinenses feared for their lives. As the province’s former police director, it would be the height of irony in his professional and political career if the crime syndicates can dance around him and thumb their noses at him as governor.
We’d like to see Gov. Espino taking charge as well in the Pangasinenses’ desperate fight for life and justice, not tomorrow but today.
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