Capa case another reason P-Noy has gone astray

By Al S. Mendoza

THIS is the sorry story of Police Senior Supt. Conrad Capa.

For having led the arrest of fugitive real estate magnate Delfin Lee (now charged with syndicated estafa in connection with a P7-billion housing racket), Capa was sent to hell instead of heaven.

Capa said he was being ditched to “rot” in Cebu as deputy regional chief for operations before he could be promoted to chief superintendent.

Alan Purisima, the national police chief, claimed Capa was being reassigned as a step for Capa to soon earn a star-rank equivalent to brigadier general in the military.

But Capa refuted Purisima’s public statement, saying Purisima was “fooling us” when he publicly announced that Capa’s transfer to Cebu was “a reward.”

Purisima is a hardcore P-Noy loyalist.  He was P-Noy’s personal security aide during the presidency of P-Noy’s mother, the late President Cory.

When told he was being banished to Cebu just days after arresting Lee on March 6, Capa was inconsolable.

“I’m very angry, I’m very frustrated,” Capa said.  “I will not take this sitting down.”

But when he came to, he did.

“I have accepted my fate,” Capa said.  “My becoming a police general had dimmed [after the outburst to the media].”

Capa added:  “I already bade goodbye to my stars.  But I really don’t care.  In this particular case, I know I have the moral high ground.”

But why he wasn’t promoted on the spot for a job well done could veer you quickly to Vice President Jojo Binay’s thesis.

Binay had earlier said an “influential person” very close to P-Noy allegedly tried to keep Lee from being arrested.

Why Capa was removed, pilloried even, for valor defies logic.

For being stubborn, no, upright, because he applied the full force of the law despite grinding pressure from the gods, Capa was made to pay the price.

“This very loud official, can we depend on him?” P-Noy said in a speech on Tuesday, clearly referring to Capa.  “We can as long as he is happy.  But if he’s no longer happy, we can no longer depend on him.”

P-Noy’s brutal insult on Capa was unleashed before the country’s 148,000-strong police force celebrating “Araw ng Parangal sa Kapulisan” on Tuesday at Camp Crame.

What a farce.

You are supposed to honor, commend, your best and brightest but here you are, the Boss, tongue-lashing one of the “few good men” left in the service.

Why Capa hasn’t resigned, I have no answer.

“I do not regret what I have said to the media,” he said.  “I find happiness seeing ordinary people and Delfin Lee’s victims who congratulated me for what I’ve done to help bring them justice.”

How many like him still wear their uniform with dignity and honor?

But then, who said it pays to be a hero?

Not in the Philippines.

Not under P-Noy’s watch.

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