Battling two critical fronts with technology

AS if the vigilance to protect Pangasinan and maintain its African Swine Flu-free status was not enough, the province finds itself on a red alert in another front – peace and order.

Off-hand, the pressure on Pangasinan to open its borders to hog raisers coming from other provinces is unrelenting. Agriculture Sec. William Dar had asked for the relaxation of the total ban and the provincial government acquiesced. It was relaxed two weeks ago but it  had to restore the total ban last week after the Department of Agriculture confirmed that it was the contagious African Swine Flu that hit the hog industry in Bulacan and Rizal. 

For as long as the total ban is in effect, vigilance must be raised to a higher level because hog raisers affected by the total ban will try every means to beat it while the affected LGUs who rely on pork supply from other provinces will continue to exert pressure.

Then comes the attempt on the life of former Cong. Amado Espino Jr.  It clearly indicates that a guns-for-hire syndicate of a private army operating from within or outside. For some reason, the intelligence of the police here and in other provinces failed to detect this.

The ambush was a blatant display of impunity by criminal syndicates, fearing nothing, not even the capability of the police to neutralize them.

In both fronts, the support and cooperation of the public is imperative. The most effective protection that families can enjoy can only come from their communities themselves. Our law enforcers can only be expected to do so much against well-funded and armed criminal syndicates.

Towards this end, the only best intel tool that families and the business sector can adopt and provide is to install CCTV cameras in their premises. In brief we should all help build a “Safe City /Community” with technology.

Hospital pass for sale’

THE Bilibid mess did not end with the sacking of Bureau of Corrections chief Nick Faeldon.  After the “GCTA For Sale” scam comes the “Hospital Pass For Sale” racket.  The GCTA (Good Conduct Time Allowance) allowed many among almost 2,000 freed convicts released for a fee.  This was unveiled in the Senate probe centered on the aborted freedom of rapist-murderer Antonio Sanchez, the mayor of Calauan, Laguna, when collared over his gruesome crimes against UP-Los Banos students Aileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez in 1993.  Found guilty in 1995, Sanchez almost walked as a free man on August 20 when the media, getting wind of it, blew the whistle.  With the Senate entering the picture, our senators unearthed the illegal transfer of an inmate to a comfortable hospital stay in Bilibid, also for a fee of, reportedly, from P200,000 to P2 million per prisoner. Surely, more heads will roll. Doctors included?  

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