The good, the bad and the ugly ex- generals

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

IN our news this week is an item where former police director Pol Bataoil was quoted defending the right of former military and police officials to seek electoral posts in reaction to a scathing criticism from senatorial candidates Satur Ocampo and Lisa Maza about them.

Without going into the political agenda of either the rightists or leftists, as Mr. Hermogenes Esperon did, I must say Mr. Bataoil’s retort is certainly correct. They have the right like anyone else to seek election.  I surmise that Mr. Ocampo and Ms. Maza, the veteran street parliamentarians who consistently advocated the preservation of freedom in our country and decried abuses in government, should actually be the first to defend Mr. Bataoil’s and other ex-military men and women’s right to seek public office.

But I can understand where Mr. Ocampo and Ms. Maza are coming from, having been victims of military harassment, their rights trampled upon by abusive authoritarian and cruel military officers in the past. They don’t want to see the ugly faces of the notorious human rights violators in uniform in their company. But in the same vein, I am sure they cannot deny that there are many respectable men and women who once served in the uniform sector with distinction to whom the nation can be truly grateful for being true professionals and true patriots.

Indeed, in our midst today are public servants who once donned their uniforms proudly for years and are today’s epitome of true public servants.  Indeed, the likes of Messrs. Amado Espino Jr., Reynaldo Velasco, Marcelo Navarro Jr.  and Ricardo Revita do today’s men and women in uniform proud.

The fact is all of our senior officers in the military and police service today are one of the country’s most highly-educated, many of whom have been sent to prestigious universities here and overseas for higher education. Many hold masters’ degrees in public administration, management and accountancy. Their training is rooted on defending and preserving institutions and lives. In contrast, many of our politicos only claim to public service is partaking of illegal commissions and kickbacks at an early age.

Yet, with all that educational background and training, our senior military and police officers are retired compulsorily by law at age 56!  If they were in the private sector all their lives, at 56 with all their education and training, they would make the best candidates for vice presidents and presidents of large conglomerates.

In my view, therefore, our people should be grateful for the opportunity to tap the services being offered by our respectable retired generals through the ballot.

Sure, we have the baddies and uglies among them. And we should condemn and protest the appointments of retired generals to government posts whose human rights records are tainted, are reputed to be drug dealers or financiers and whose lifestyle are clearly sourced from illegal means. It behooves upon the appointing authority to discern these for the protection of our institutions and preservation of public funds.

And, if these starred rascals present themselves as candidates who can be voted upon and win, then the people who elected them only have themselves to blame if their communities eventually sink in the quagmire of corruption for eternity.

Yes Virginia, there are the good, the bad and the ugly ex-generals. And the good ones are still in the majority!  But like everyone else, they have the right to seek public office.

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SMILEY-NO-MORE PD BARBA? It looks like the cattle rustlers whom Smiley PD Barba successfully intimidated two years ago are no longer afraid of the guy. They are back in business in San Carlos City like nobody’s business.

I don’t think the rustlers became bolder this time simply because the kapitans are no longer armed with shotguns. They already scampered out of Mr. Barba’s sight when the kapitans were still unarmed and dared not to move in their places evidently out of fear even of the smiling chief’s shadow.  Methinks the bad guys have been watching the good guy from the sidelines for the last two years and reckoned that Mr. Barba is actually one who simply loves to write threatening letters, and doesn’t really bite.  So, they merrily went back to their bad habits bent on ignoring Mr. Barba’s deadly threats.

I say the rustlers were dumb for mistakenly interpreting Mr. Barba’s smiley nature as one of weakness, that he cannot (and does not) back up his threats with silver bullets.  I know he can and San Carlos Mayor Ayoy Resuello need not worry for long.  Already, I sense Mr. Barba has decided to stop smiling for now.

Watch out bandidos! You may have returned with a vengeance but Smiley-no more Pd Barba will likely soon leave his mark on your chests.

For the sake of the poor farmers, this is one time when I pray I will not be proven wrong.

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THE RIGHT TO A RALLY PERMIT. Here’s a piece of item we received from the Center for International Law that should interest all candidates running against an incumbent mayor and other groups that wish to stage rallies.

According to a recent decision by the Supreme Court in a landmark case on the Marcos-era 1985 Public Assembly Act, mayors cannot arbitrarily deny any group a permit to hold a rally in the town, not even just change the venue of a rally without first giving organizers who had applied for a permit to hold it there any showing of a “clear and present danger” to the community.

So unless the group that applied for the permit to hold a rally is clearly posing a threat to the welfare of the community, mayors under the new ruling are obliged by law to issue the permit.

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