A story on broken election promises

By Leonardo Micua

AN angry mob stormed the mayor’s office, seized the town official, tied his hands to a rope connected to a Toyota pick-up truck that dragged him along the street in full view of his constituents. 

Thankfully, this did not happen in the Philippines but in a town in Mexico where the exasperated villagers took the law into their hands in protest over their mayor’s alleged unfulfilled election promise of repairing their road.  

We have yet to see a Filipino official bodily carried from his office and dumped in the street like a log for breaking his promise to his people.

Given the Filipino’s psyche of apathy and never-care-attitude even if they know that their elected official is an inveterate liar and corrupt to the bones, I doubt if this scenario will ever happen here.

How can this happen if some of our people were corrupted by the candidate by receiving his money in exchange for their votes during the election?

It is now a known fact, especially in Dagupan City that a candidate loses if he does not resort to “pakurong” or doled out lesser money to the electorate.

But I doff my hat to the Mexican villagers for showing to the world that they cannot be corrupted by their officials.

I surmise that in resorting to unwarranted action against their mayor, they could be simply delivering a message that the official cannot renege on his promise and simply turn his back on them after trusting him with their votes.

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You might have noticed that the inquiry in aid of legislation concerning the so-called ‘ninja” cops and previously the Good Time Conduct Allowance of convicted prisoners in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Senator Richard Gordon has already morphed into a plain and simple Game of the Generals.

At this stage of the inquiry, four retired PNP generals appeared to be ganging up PNP chief General Oscar Albayalde in his solo self for allegedly coddling his former men who conducted a questionable anti-drug operation in Mexico, Pampanga in 2013, at a time when he was yet PNP provincial director of Pampanga.

It was former CIDG chief and now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong who spilled in beans over the “ninja” cops who he investigated of recycling crystal meths they seized in their operations and who his office has recommended to be dismissed from the service.

At one point the resource speakers disagreed among themselves on the exact time the anti-drug operation was conducted. Albayalde and the officer who led that operation said it happened at 4:00 p.m. while Magalong and the other generals said it was in the morning at 10:00 a.m.       

Retired General and now PDEA chief Aaron Aquino, as well as retired General Manuel Gaerlan and Rudy Lacadin, joined in presenting what were supposed to be circumstantial but damaging evidence against Albayalde for allegedly coddling his men.

Whatever will be the result of the inquiry, it should hopefully not cast doubt on the credibility and integrity of the PNP as an institution but rather strengthen it, and not cloud the War on Drugs of President Duterte.

The Filipinos are definitely waiting for the result and outcome of this inquiry. 

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In order to extricate himself from the mud where he is in now, hog trader Roger Erpelo of Baloling, Mapandan is today saying–through his lawyer– that he and his truck loaded with 60 swine from Bulacan slipped into Pangasinan when those manning a quarantine checkpoint along the highway were already fast asleep.

Provincial Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued said such assertion of the suspect is unfair as the quarantine checkpoints in all entry points of Pangasinan are manned by policemen and veterinary personnel 24/7 in alternating shifts.

Erpelo need not be believed in, said Baniqued, as his action of bringing infected swine, was reeking with malice. He presented documents originating from Bulacan that were tampered and he lacked other documents required by BAI to legally transport his swine. 

It is now a certainty that he will be slapped with voluminous cases as many hog raisers in Mangaldan and in the adjacent town of Manaoag served notice they are individually filing cases against him for bringing misery to them.

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