SHOOTING THE MESSENGER, AGAIN — PD Ronald Lee doesn’t like the way Pangasinan newsmen give importance to the information shared by a certain Eco Dangla on the armed encounter between alleged New People’s Army and government troops in San Nicolas town.

The first time the clash happened on July 28, one policeman from Manaoag town was killed.

The NPA issued a statement owning to the killing about a month later. Atrasado.

Siyempe masakit yun sa pamilya ni PO2 Aries Tamondong. Pag ang NPA ang nakapatay, nagbubunyi sila. Paano naman ang damdamin ng mga namatayang pamilya?

The second encounter last week had three casualties from the NPA side.

Then Mr. Dangla went on air (I heard him over Bombo Radyo Dagupan) saying that the casualties were not NPAs but treasure hunters.

A local TV reporter told me when I saw her in Rosales for a news coverage that PD is mad.”Bakit naman?,” I wondered.

Then, another radio reporter said the same.

I understand where PD is coming from. Hirap na hirap na sila dyan sa San Nicolas. Buhay ng kapulisan ang nakataya. Parang nasa hukay ang isang paa nila kapag nasa bundok ang mga magigiting nating kapulisan sa pagsugpo ng kaaway at pagpapanatili ng kapayapaan.

PD Lee said many things in our exchange of text messages. Bottom line is, bahala kayo kung ano ang gusto nyong paniwalaan, he said. His word versus Dangla’s word (representing the NPAs). Sino ba ang dapat paniwalaan? What I know is, get both sides, present them, and let the readers be the judge.

Whether it is an NPA propaganda or otherwise, I hope PD Lee will understand media work to get the other side of the story.

Then again, middle last week, another report surfaced, posted anew by Dangla in his Facebook account. Dangla tagged some newsmen he knows.

It’s about the killing of an alleged Anak-pawis leader in San Carlos City. Several radio stations carried the story.

“Kinakagat nyo kasi,” PD said in a text message when I asked him again about it.

Ouuuch, saklap naman nun. Kasalanan na ngayon ng media. Haaaay. — Eva Visperas

 

DRUGS KILL, AND HOW— My good friend Joel Palacios was among the five victims at the carnage at the condominium in Pasay City. His death was not the result only of a crime of passion but a classic example of a condition when a man’s brain has already been ruined by illegal drugs.

Palacios was with Reuters before he transferred to the Inquirer and later became vice president of the Social Security System (SSS) (bless his soul).

No one can dispute the fact that the suspect and his girlfriend may be by themselves are habitual drug users and drug traffickers, whose violent quarrels sparked the bloody carnage.

Such brutal killings could only be consummated by a person who had taken drugs and alcohol one too many. The suspect and possibly his girl friend who were both allegedly from Cagayan and who were just staying in the flat owned by the man’s relative.

Just imagine if we have millions of their kind throughout the country as statistics from the government tend to show, no body is already safe in this country and even in his own apartment as the Pasay City carnage amply demonstrated.

With apologies to those seeking a stop to the war on drug, if your brother or sister was the victim in that Pasay City condominium carnage, will you not allow the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to complete their unfinished task?

The many persons seriously affected by illegal drugs were the very reason the war on drugs was waged by President Rodrigo Duterte since day 1 of his administration.

Yet, despite the fair warning to those into drugs and those enslaved by drugs to now cease their illegal operations before the long arm of the law will finally catch up on them, many of these criminals are still in hiding. — Leonardo Micua

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