By Leonardo Micua

 

LAST week, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. stunned the rank and file of the Philippine National Police when he challenged all bigwigs, from full colonel to general, to tender their courtesy resignation amid speculations that a few of them are involved in illegal drug trading.

The challenge of the good Secretary Abalos, that reverberated not only in the entire country but also in some parts of the world, was a tacit admission there are rotten eggs in the basket of the Philippine National Police.

It just confirmed previous nagging suspicions that a few  officials in the echelon of the national police have complicit relationships with drug lords or in cahoots with them, they who are still operating with impunity despite the war on drugs waged by the past Duterte administration.

Indeed, it should not only be the ninja cops that must be jailed but also the corrupt colonels and generals who are presumably behind the illegal activities of their subordinates. It’s a shame that this breed of thick-faced officials in the police service managed to stay on tarnishing their uniform.

According to Secretary Abalos, it would be difficult for upright policemen to continue their fight against illegal drugs if their fellow men in uniform, particularly their officers, are themselves involved in illegal drugs.

The war on drugs started by the past administration will never succeed unless the corrupt officials in police uniform who are rotten to the core, are put out of the way.

Let’s see who will take the challenge of the DILG secretary to resign and or willing to go through the cleansing process. I bet that those whom Secretary Abalos accused as having an unholy alliance with drug traffickers, albeit without naming names, will think twice before tendering their courtesy resignation.

We were informed that all letters of resignation from concerned PNP officials will be evaluated by a five-man committee  created by PNP Chief Rodolfo Azurin and will decide which officer should be retained, reassigned or given the boot.

Azarin himself was among the first generals to tender his courtesy resignation.
I am pretty sure that at this time, the colonels and generals in the police service and their cohorts who messed with illegal drugs too long are already having sleepless nights because Secretary Abalos and PNP Chief Azurin are bent on weeding them out to save the image of the whole organization.

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Methinks that the state of emergency in the country should be extended given the sad situation happening in China (only four hours away from us) where there is a renewed upsurge of COVID-19 cases in about the same magnitude when the pandemic started.

A TV report last Wednesday night said eight Filipinos who just arrived from China were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport where they were diagnosed to be COVID-19 positive. These persons were immediately whisked away from the other arriving passengers and put on quarantine.

This is a serious cause of concern to us because they could be carrying the BA.5. and BF.7, the dominant Omicron sub-variants that infected a million of Chinese residents to date. In fact, reports say the new upsurge of the pandemic already see corpses lined up in many funeral homes in some cities and in the countryside.

Definitely, we cannot allow this to happen again.

But notwithstanding the new upsurge of cases in China, President Bongbong Marcos still pushed through with his scheduled state visit, bringing with him a delegation of Filipino officials and businessmen for meetings, with their Chinese counterparts face-to-face.

We can only hope that the  Filipino delegation, and of course President and Mrs. Marcos,  did not seek special treatment when they arrived and went  through the normal health protocol. It they insisted  on bypassing the protocol because they belong to the presidential delegation, then we will all be at risk of belonged  infected by the new covid variants.

The health protocol should not exempt anyone because the COVID-19 virus hits anyone regardless of title and class of people.

It is reassuring to hear DOH OIC Maria Rosario Vergiere claim that DOH has prepared a well-knit health protocol for returning Filipinos and arriving foreigners in the country’s airports.

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