Friday, July 04, 2008 Seares: De Lemos Codilla By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
NBI Regional Director Medardo de Lemos was ordered relieved but the transfer was aborted. Cebu City Fire Chief Esmael Codilla was about to turn over command but the ceremony was cancelled.
Both incidents happened recently, Codilla's case being one of few stories that survived the sea tragedy's dominance of the news last week.
Common thread is meddling by officials outside the NBI and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP). Local officials wailed and Palace boys came running.
Malacañang has the right to stop what it's made to see as wrong move by heads of office. It also has clout over chiefs who order the assignments.
But what assures the public that its interest, not political ends, is served by Palace intrusion?
On de Lemos' transfer, the NBI chief was target of reprisal allegedly by those who decried NBI's raid of a rice warehouse.
Out to replace de Lemos was someone whom the Cebu public still sees as an unpunished chief in the Dec. 13, 2002 strafing of a Plantation Bay van by NBI agents and assets.
'Blackmail'
Codilla's case is something else. There's a complaint against him filed by BFP probers regarding a large sum of money the city fire district allegedly owes a gasoline supplier.
Codilla says the charge is trumped up and he can pay the debt. Mayor Tomas Osmeña believes him and threatens BFP of eviction from city-owned offices if Codilla is replaced.
What mayor's critics call "blackmail" succeeded. A Palace official rushed to stop the turnover.
These exercises test Malacañang's correction mechanism, which works when injustice is averted and doesn't work when the result is a cover-up.
