Monday, December 04, 2006 Jimmy Britanico: Serving the community better
AT A certain point of our life in uniform we are inclined to consider every opportunity of serving our community better.
A lot have thus calculated the risk in doing so with a sense of self-sacrifice. In both dream and reality, many have succeeded, for their feat may be great. And the price of that greatness, real or imagined, is greater responsibility.
For consideration is the prospect given to J/Insp. Jimmy M. Britanico, duty officer under the Office of the Chief Directorial Staff, BJMP National Headquarters in Quezon City who, with sheer determination and courage had been given the opportune chance of walking over a convict's dangerous premises, tasted the ire of his relatives, discoursed on the legality of the fugitive's arrest, gave the widowed complainant and her family peace of mind and frustrated no more the ends of justice above and beyond the call of duty.
His immediate superior and head of office J/Sr. Supt. Maximo Altubar Sr would attest to this.
This experience somehow regarded Britanico, a peace officer by accident, for he was supposed to spend a much-needed respite after almost a year of cultivating the gains and pains of being a neophyte jail officer of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology through lateral entry (Natatangi Class 05-06).
To note, the family-conscious jail officer have been enjoying quality time with his wife and kids, short enough while the despicable terrains in Buenavista, Guimaras where the convict turned fugitive Paterno "Aprek" Niog allegedly sought refuge radiated to him accordingly. For a bereaved family long threatened and intimidated, what is their plea but justice? Better if restorative justice.
In deciding to settle himself to assist the family that involved no consideration whatsoever, Britanico discovered many a reason for the fugitive's capture not to be soon known, which his weeklong and painstaking surveillance and assessment bear some kind of protection for Niog from a member of Buenavista PNP and former Punong Barangay of Barangay Piņa, who happened to be relatives of the fugitive's wife.
Some might have thought too difficult for such a situation considering also the past circumstances surrounding Nioga's case.
After stabbing to death his elder brother on that fateful night of June 24, 1998 at Barangay Pulo Maestra Vita in Oton, Iloilo, the culprit fled and was only arrested by the Criminal Investigation Detection Group 6 (CIDG6) three years later.
While doing time at the Iloilo Provincial Jail and on trial, he was granted temporary liberty brought about by the downgrading of the murder charge, as recommended by MTC Oton, to homicide courtesy of RTC Branch 34 under Hon. Judge Ma. Yolanda Panaguiton-Gavinoņo.
On September 8, 2005, Niog was convicted for homicide but was a no-show during the promulgation. Since then and until his capture on November 2, 2006, no police efforts were ever recorded.
Indeed, for Britanico, being waylaid by the felon's perceived protectors was part of the blindfold game of traps and zaps, so to speak.
Well, through them he might escape punishment and roam around as if nothing happened. And there, in perilous grounds and shores of Guimaras and Negros, did he jump bail to his family's delight -- for a month, a year and for a dangerous life traversing even to Oton, Iloilo in the island of Panay, the situs of his crime and continued intimidation.
While there in Buenavista, behind the shielding arms of fruit-bearing trees and green vegetation, Nioga saw how he could let the years run off, buffet his freedom through, and feel how injustice prevail.
The convicts or fugitives of Panay, Guimaras and Negros, wherever they may lurk and place their safe houses, might as well think that they were endangering the lives and properties of their unsuspecting neighbors.
More so for Nioga's would-be captor, Britanico, for the murderer is rich in both imagination and proportion towards his innocent elder brother whose life he can afford to terminate.
The risk on the capture of Paterno Niog is both physical and psychological, and carried the jail officer so far as the safety of his own family is concerned.
For grudge or fear of reprisal, God forbid, is sweeter when it is cold.
The nearest that Britanico thought of death was on November 2, 2006, while negotiating Guimaras straight via a pumpboat -- gunning for a calling which appears more of a dilemma rather than a worthy consideration.
Now, to wish for a commensurate return, the 42-year-old Britanico has but his courage, gallantry and even life to offer, if need be, with neither trumpets nor drums, for risking lives is always revolutionary, and it surpassed his unexpected role to tell should he has the opportune chance again to prove his worth above and beyond the call of duty.
We have frequently known unsolved or unpunished crimes, having enjoyed the most valuable fruits of injustice, while the victims supposed that the Criminal Justice System (CJS) focused solely on police work. Why? The victim does not know it for untold years when the court has convicted an accused for manslaughter, justice will be served only when he would be remorseful behind the cold bars of rehabilitation.
For the unexpected role of Britanico in such a non-BJMP event like apprehending convicts, this is indeed true and sublime. And such a time or occasion is now and here with the Jail Bureau.
The act of Britanico above and beyond the call of duty itself culminates in the present moment, and will hardly be duplicated in Western Visayas in the lapse of a year or two. Concededly, since jail officers are enabled to apprehend at all what is applicable and commendable only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality to the jails, inmates and society of captives they we cater to.
Through Republic Act 9263 the uniformed agencies of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) constantly and obediently answer to their conceptions. Whether a jail officer saved lives from a blazing inferno; whether a fire officer nabbed a looter, whether a police officer recovered an escapee, the right track is laid for them through, if possible, a well-deserved and appropriate special promotion.
Britanico has never yet had so fair and noble an opportunity of serving the community better than such an accomplishment. Perhaps for the next six to 12 years when the convict has served his sentence, he has weathered the trauma brought forth by the culprit whose complainants can now conveniently settle with their once hapless selves, work peacefully and wedge their feet downward in the farm they till with much inspiration while the BJMP officer goes through the mud and slush of public opinion and prejudice as well of his captive now languishing without remorse at the newly-constructed Iloilo Provincial Jail in Pototan, Iloilo.
