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Thursday, December 23, 2004
Wenceslao: Hunters, scapegoats
By Bong O. Wenceslao
There must be something in the word “hunter” that prodded Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to tack it on the anti-crime team he is forming. Or he could just be plain romantic. The word itself conjures visions of the chase, of the hunted scampering away and the hunter going for the kill. Pure romance, of course, because reality is different.
In keeping with the concept, the mayor is recruiting police elements whose image approximates the goal. There’s PO3 Adonis Dumpit. How many “kills”? I no longer bothered to count. Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau Chief Pablo Labra II? Hostage-taker and suspected robber Roel Patana’s name easily comes to mind.
But no, the mayor clarified, he is not about to do a Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, whose Davao City has become the playing ground of death squads. The Hunter Team is no death squad, although its elements will kill “if they give us reason to shoot them.” Which, in this day, means the same thing. Can’t one kill and invent reasons later?
Still, one can give it to Osmeña for finally suggesting a way to curb the rising tide of criminality in the city. For hasn’t the man been a hunter himself—I mean, always hunting for scapegoats? How many Cebu City police chiefs has he blamed for the rise in criminality? For this mayor, it has always been “kayo, kayo, lagi na lang kayo...”
Unfortunately, the mayor’s Hunter Team idea does not address the root of the peace and order problem. Elite units can only do so much, besides being an anomaly in the police organizational structure and sparking confusion and demoralization in the ranks. And how many human rights violation cases will be filed against team members?
The point is criminality is such a big problem a Hunter Team can’t deal with it by its lonesome. So the key is to whip the entire city police organization into form, turning it into a really effective unit a-la Cebu’s Finest of old. But that needs good leadership and not an impatient one that does not accept blame.
TEXTREAX. From Pol of Ming-lanilla: “Gipasaligan sa gobyerno ang mga government employees nga naa nay budget para sa ilang extra bonus. So nagsalig sad intawon. Karon, wa diay mahatag kay wa diay kwarta. Okay lang unta to kun way extra bonus basta wa lang mopasalig.”
Meanwhile, an unidentified texter clarified that most students of the Cebu City National Science High School now are from private elementary schools. If so, that is unfortunate. In our time, only the top 10 percent students in public elementary schools were allowed to take the entrance exam. That allowed poor but deserving students to avail of the Science High scholarship.
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ 0927-4912362)
(December 23, 2004 issue)
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