Is the war on drugs in Pangasinan over

UNTIL last week, this was the question uppermost in many Pangasinenses’ minds when the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office (PPPO), local police stations and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency team in Pangasinan did not issue any update on buy-bust operations or raids of suspected drug dens in any part of Pangasinan in the months of April and May.

Finally, The PUNCH got an update this week with summary of operations beginning this month.

The absence of updates from the police and PDEA for a period was, indeed, cause for worry because while the country was getting daily updates on developments in the war on drugs in other provinces, Pangasinan had nothing to report.

People wondered what caused Pangasinan PNP and PDEA to suspend all drug operations? Have they also stopped updating their watch lists in all barangays? Have they stopped collaborating with the Barangay Anti-Drug Advisory Councils?

Note that when tokhang was suspended by President Duterte early this year, both PNP and PDEA swore that the suspension promptly returned the drug pushers to the streets with a vengeance. With no news about tokhang, buy-busts and drug raids today, it was hard to believe that the drug syndicates were not exploiting the situation with impunity.

 

Sacking Sereno

WHEN the Supreme Court decides, it is final.  But the Court also obeys the saying, “Everybody deserves a second chance.”  And so, when Ma. Lourdes Sereno appealed her ouster as Chief Justice by a Supreme Court verdict of 8-6, the tribunal took heed.  Unfortunately, the original 8-6 vote stayed as the 8 anti-Sereno justices stood their ground to sack Sereno.

Thus, on June 19, Sereno became the first Chief Justice to be removed on the basis of a quo warranto pleading by Solicitor General Jose Calida.  The quo warranto made Sereno an unqualified Chief Justice from the very start as seen by the 8 justices giving Sereno the boot.  She follows the fate of the late Renato Corona, who was impeached in Congress and then thrown out by the Senate as Chief Justice in 2012.

Indeed, no one is above the law that even the highest magistrate of the land isn’t spared, reminding us once more that all laws apply to both the lowly and the mighty.

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