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Saturday, June 29, 2002
EDITORIAL: Surprise, not relief
If the sacking of seven senior officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were a publicity stunt by the Arroyo administration to boost its sagging popularity rating, then it failed badly.
Generally, public reaction was more of a surprise rather than relief.
This is also true in Cebu where two of those affected—Police Regional Office 7 Director Avelino Razon and Cebu Provincial Police Office Chief Jose Antonio Salvacion—are based.
The move was supposedly because the said police officials failed to stop the spread of illegal gambling, particularly jueteng in Luzon and masiao in the Visayas and Mindanao, in their areas of responsibility.
A police officer, who visited the Sun.Star office the other day, noted that stopping illegal gambling, like masiao and video carrera, should be given full attention only after bigger problems, like robbery, have been curbed.
While attending piecemeal to peace and order woes is definitely not the way our law enforcement agents should operate, the police officer’s argument can still partly explain the surprise that greeted the sacking of the PNP top guns.
In the case of Razon and Salvacion, there hasn’t been much uproar over their handling of the campaign against illegal gambling apparently because the Cebuanos’ attention was focused on the recent rise in robbery incidents.
Besides, robbery incidents in Cebu are concentrated more in the city, making Salvacion less a target of criticism. Razon meanwhile is too high up the ladder of the police hierarchy to be constantly hit by the blame throwing.
Thus, if the Cebuano public expected anybody to be sacked, it should have been the chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) during the time when the upsurge in robbery incidents became unbearable.
And the CCPO chief then, Lani-O Nerez, was indeed sacked.
This means that not only was the ouster of Razon and Salvacion done for the wrong reason, it also targeted the officers who are not yet perceived to be that incompetent or controversial.
Thus the National Police Commission, which drafted the order, could not blame people who are now saying that either the move was not well studied or done for sinister reasons those affected have yet to uncover.
Ecleo still safe
There is as yet no compelling reason for Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) “supreme master” Ruben Ecleo Jr. to fear for his life at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC).
His followers, too, should stop worrying.
Despite the recent incident that resulted to the death of an inmate, there is no proof of a plot to kill the PBMA leader in prison. The attacker, Avelino Edaño, was mentally disturbed and he could have targeted prisoners other than Ecleo at that time.
That was very much unlike what happened to the Bacolods in Mandaue City days ago, where the plot to kill was very apparent.
Indeed, if anybody has reason not to sleep well these days, it should not be Ecleo or the PBMA faithful but the remaining members of the Bacolod family, as the threat to their lives is real and continuing. |
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