By Leonardo Micua

SHORTLY after being sworn in as the next chief of the Philippine National Police, General Nicolas Torre III issued a marching order to the men in uniform nationwide to be out on the streets so they can be more responsive to calls for help from the civilian population against criminals.

In a press conference, he said policemen should not linger in their respective stations just waiting for things to happen, but be out even in the darkest streets to bring chills down the spines of criminals and would-be criminals.

To him, police visibility is a must to reassure the public that they can rest comfortably in their homes at night, knowing policemen are just around their vicinity to protect them from criminals.

General Torre also wants the police to adopt a three-minute emergency response time, adjusted to five minutes a few days later, to give them a higher chance of catching the perpetrators and preserving the integrity of evidence.

He assured that under his watch, the campaign against illegal drugs will be pursued relentlessly, but without any lives lost, taking a dig at the past administration that waged a war on drugs with thousands of lives sacrificed.

At the same time, he issued a stern warning to police scalawags to get out of the service before he runs after them.

Torre, the first graduate of the PNP Academy to head the 220,000-man national police force, may yet be the PNP chief that the nation has long been waiting for because of his down-to-earth policies that could result in better police-community relations and cooperation.

As to his five-minute emergency response time policy, many consider this a tall order, but it is highly achievable if every policeman puts the order of their chief to heart.

Torre said if cops cannot respond to an incident in more than five minutes, their superiors would have to take accountability for it and he would not hesitate to replace them with more capable ones.

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The Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) is not viable at its present state, but will still continue, according to Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon when he spoke before the Commission on Appointments.

He frankly told the CA members that most of the jeepney drivers and operators who obtained loans from the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines are having difficulty paying their loans.

Unable to collect from the borrowers, the two state-run banks decided to stop extending loans to the sector, putting the whole PUMV in limbo. 

 However, the government is continuously persuading the two banks to continue extending loans, with better terms this time, but the financial institutions have so far remained cool to the idea.

This is what many jeepney drivers and operators who earlier opposed consolidation were saying all along. An ordinary jeepney driver cannot afford to amortize a China-made jeepney (or is it a mini-bus?) without sacrificing the daily food and other needs of his family.

The Duterte administration virtually rammed the PUMPV on the throat of jeepney drivers and operators without a thorough study on its viability.

Many jeepney drivers and their families were already dislocated because they were forced to surrender their franchise to a cooperative or corporation that has virtually no experience in managing and running a profitable business venture. 

No, this is not the fault of the PBBM administration. It inherited this problem from the past Duterte administration. 

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Even after being beaten black and blue during the May 12 elections, the majority in the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod has not stopped badgering the administration of Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Even if Mayor Belen and her colleagues have yet to be sworn in and assume their fresh mandate, the defeated councilors have started making fireworks disguised as ordinances directed at the victorious candidates.

In their last hurrah, they passed several ordinances that would entail the disbursement of huge sums of money from the city budget, hoping it can leave a legacy about them.

But they will soon be called the “had been” in Dagupan politics and must accept their fate.

Mayor Belen will surely not let any of these ordinances lapse into laws. She will surely veto all of these once these are submitted to her desk. Mark my word.

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