Exemplary leadership

THE provincial police have determined that 80% of the province’s 1,364 barangays are drug-affected. It means the existence of drug pushers and users, processing and peddling of illegal drugs in these barangays is confirmed by their respective Barangay Anti-Drug Advisory Councils themselves.

The response of Gov. Amado Espino III to the situation was exemplary at the very least. He directed the mandatory testing all employees of the provincial government if only to send the signal to all and sundry that the government will not tolerate the situation any longer.

Then when The PUNCH challenged Sta. Barbara Liga president Jinky Zaplan, newly elected president of the Federation of Liga ng mga Barangay, to lead her organization out of the rut that it has found itself in the war on drugs, she did what her members had not expected to do – to match the governor’s initiative. She didn’t lose time in filing a resolution urging all barangay officials to submit to mandatory drug testing as well.

We know this will not lead to drug-free communities overnight but it is a good beginning in the right direction.  We doff our hats to the two leaders.

Supreme Court on trial

SEEN from any angle, it is obvious: Opponents of Marcos’ burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani won Round 1 at the Supreme Court.  The High Court has stopped the internment of the dictator’s remains on Sept. 18 pending the conclusion of oral arguments made before the magistrates.

Even as Malacanang has said at the outset it would abide by any decision the Supreme Court would arrive at, the initial verdict had spoken volumes already—one of which was that the Palace-sponsored burial was flawed.  For, how can a dictator like Marcos, whose repressive 14-year, one-man rule killed more than 3,000 freedom fighters, caused the forced disappearances of nearly 8,000 and tortured more than 10,000 Filipino nationalists, be considered a hero?

And did he not also loot the nation’s coffers of no less than $10 billion?  Actually, in the case at hand, it is no longer Marcos that is on trial but the Supreme Court itself.

The world watches with bated breadth.

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