Friday, November 30, 2007 Wenceslao: Commending Comendador By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
WHILE I was writing this, Sen. Antonio Trillanes, Gen. Danilo Lim and their supporters were at it again, holding the government hostage by holing up at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City and demanding for President Arroyo’s resignation and the setting up of a caretaker government. Some people just can’t stop the urge to rebel.
I heard that former vice president Teofisto Guingona, a bishop and other civilians joined Trillanes and Lim. I doubt, however, if the endeavor will work.
For one, the “rebels” were largely unarmed. If the well-armed Oakwood mutineers failed, how much more their copycats? As for Trillanes, he just seems out of touch with political realities.
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I frequented years ago the old Ben’s Gym at the second floor of a house at the back of the old The Freeman building, which was also at the back of Gaisano Main. There, I met a cop who also spent his free time lifting weights.
When I met him last week at the new Freeman building, he told me he is now assigned at the Pardo police station.
Ben’s Gym has long been gone, driven out of the place by the fire that also partly burned the old Freeman building in the middle `90s. In place of the old house is a structure now being occupied by City Hall’s Department of Manpower Development and Placement. I don’t know where Ben, a former Mr. Philippines, relocated his gym.
Policemen have been visible in the vicinity of the new Freeman building at the corner of V. Gullas and D. Jakosalem Sts. since that infamous drive-by shooting last month. But I was surprised to see my former workout-mate there. He told me cops like him who are assigned in the office have been tasked to serve in beat patrols at night.
Cebu City cops also intensified checkpoint activities last week. I saw elements of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau and I think the Theft and Robbery Section conducting searches in the street fronting the Sun.Star office one night. The next night, they searched some suspicious-looking youngsters near the new Freeman office.
Petty crimes are still being committed in Cebu City, but there has been a lull in major heists the past several weeks, perhaps partly because of the arrest of some high-profile suspected robbers and perhaps partly because of the police anti-crime drive. I don’t know whether this is a ningas-cogon thing or not, but the drive is commendable.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Chief Patrocinio Comendador has also been clamping down on erring policemen, the latest of which was the arrest of PO2 Jaime de la Cruz, accused of “salvaging” a suspect in drug trafficking. It could mean he is serious not only in cleansing CCPO ranks but also in his vow to stop summary executions in the city.
But the proof of his seriousness in carrying out his vow is that the list of those felled by suspected vigilantes has not lengthened much since he assumed the post of CCPO chief. Vigilante-style killings have become few and far between. This could mean he is determined to make good before the mayor finds a good reason to transfer him.
