Wednesday, January 09, 2008 Malilong: Training Mandaue policemen By Frank Malilong The Other Side
SOME people will probably find the remarks of the Mandaue City police chief in the case of two of his insubordinates a little insensitive because one of them has yet to be buried while another is still in a hospital fighting for his life.
But some hard questions as to how two officers of the law were beaten to the draw by felons are begging for answers and it is Senior Supt. Rodel Calungsod’s duty to ask them, however unpleasant they may be.
In my book, it is mortal sin for a policeman to let a suspect shoot him first.
I’d rather that a law enforcer gun down a suspect than he being killed by the latter.
A cop who kills a robber enjoys the presumption of regularity in the lawful performance of his duty. On the other hand, a slain policeman raises serious questions about proficiency and caution or the lack of one or both of them.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña obviously believed in this, too which was why he insisted and continues to insist that his policemen undergo regular marksmanship training. Don’t allow yourself to be outdrawn, that is the dictum, and when you fire your gun, make sure you hit your target.
Otherwise, there is hell or your life, whichever comes first, to pay.
I read yesterday that Mandaue policemen will undergo similar training. That is good, even if a little too late insofar as the families of police officers Pedro Sucion and Darius Conejos are concerned. I hope that the other towns and cities in Cebu will follow suit.
Remember, those who do not learn from the experience of others will learn it the hard, sometimes tragic, way.
***
Will somebody please tell me how I can subscribe to Solar Sports and Basketball TV? These two channels were removed from the menu by SkyCable and replaced with utterly useless ones.
I do not know the circumstances that led to the two sports channels being yanked out. What I know is that Solar and BTV made my and, I suppose, many other people’s TV viewing enjoyable.
Alas, customer satisfaction seems to be the least of the concerns of SkyCable’s owners. I long for the days when the cable industry was not a monopoly and I hope Congress will pass a law that encourages fair competition and assures public access to the stations of their choice.
***
Readers Reynan Virtucio and John Carl Abines live miles away but they share the same view about a pretentious Tagalog movie that I wrote about in this space last week.
Reynan wrote from Winnipeg, Canada to ask how we could have reacted so strongly against a racial slur committed by an episode in “Desperate Housewives” and at the same time be so insensitive to one that comes from our own kind. John, a call center executive based in Manila, offers an explanation: education failed them.
Another reader, DarwinGarcia, wrote to ask for help in securing his car registration official receipt from the Land Transportation Office in Danao City.
Darwin, a Cebuano working in Hongkong, claims that Danao LTO head Eddie Mata has refused to release the O.R. despite repeated follow-ups by his wife and her brother.
If he has no legal ground to withhold it, Mata should immediately release the O.R. to the distraught car owner. Otherwise, Garcia may have to go to the Ombudsman for assistance.
