Editorial
The complacent 44 police chiefs
IT’S notable that the police chiefs of cities of Dagupan City and Urdaneta, and the towns of Aguilar and Bugallon were cited by the Regional Police Office for their successful conduct of the “One Time Big Time Operations” against illegal drugs in their communities.
There are two ways to interpret this development: 1) The province has less drug drug groups operating in the province; 2) Only four out of 48 towns and cities are actively pursuing the directive of Chief PNP Ricardo Marquez to wage war against drug syndicates. The first may be an encouraging sign but the second is worrisome because it tells Pangasinenses that the majority of our police officers are not keen on doing battle with drug lords operating in the province.
Indeed, if only 10% of police chiefs in the province are in the war, then both Gov. Amado Espino Jr. and Pangasinan Police Provincial Office O-I-C P/Sr. Supt. Rolie Saltat cannot confidently say the provincial government is gaining on the drug lords, certainly far from it.
It’s about time they make the 44 complacent police chiefs account for their failures in conducting “One Time Big Time Operations” in their towns and cities. For as long as they fail to nab all the drug personalities in their communities, the suspicion that they have been coopted by the drug syndicates remain strong.
Worse, thousands of families continue to be victimized.
Bongbong’s Marcos legacy
IN his piteous pitch for his vice presidential bid, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he just wants to pursue the “legacy of my father.” And what was that legacy again of his father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr.?
In his 20 years in power—the last 14 as dictator of his horrible, much-hated martial law regime—Marcos Sr. looted the country’s coffers a total of more than $10 billion. Scholarly historian Alfred McCoy wrote that Marcos’s martial law killed 3,257 extra-judicially and salvaged 2,520.
The US District Court of Honolulu found Marcos guilty of mass torture of pro-democracy elements numbering 9,441. Subsequently, the dictator was ordered by the court to pay $2 billion in damages—the biggest personal injury verdict in legal history.
Said Lee Kuan Yew, the revered leader of Singapore, of Bongbong’s father: “Only in the Philippines could a leader like Marcos, who pillaged his country for 20 years, still be considered for a national burial. Insignificant amounts of the loot have been recovered, yet his wife and children were allowed to return and engage in politics.”
Vote Bongbong and there’s your legacy, Marcos style.
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