Espinoza: Faeldon should leave

TWO remarkable, if not regrettable, events took place on Sunday and on Monday, respectively. On Sunday, flashfloods hit the low-lying Barangays of Tagonol, Mambaling and the downtown areas of Cebu City. The good news is, there were no casualties or huge damage to properties. God is good all the time.

On Monday, dashing lawyer Inocencio de la Cerna Jr. was ambushed outside the courts in Qimonda after a hearing. Luckily, he was spared from death. As SunStar’s headline puts it, de la Cerna was a “bullet dodger.” His sports utility vehicle was riddled with bullets, but he only had a scratch on his arm from the debris of the shattered window glass.

While these two unfortunate events are not related in any way, they direly suggest that the city is no longer safe from natural calamities, like floods, and the from the acts of evil men, which was typified by the attempt on the life of de la Cerna. Not long ago, in the same place, lawyer John Ungab was ambushed and killed, which was witnessed by his wife.

Natural calamities like typhoons or tropical storms can now be predicted through the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical, Services Administration (Pagasa) and from international weather bulletins so that the national and local governments can make preparations before the storms could hit any part of the country. But no one can predict an attempt on the life of a person, not even the victim himself.

The riding-in-tandem is out again. The attempt on the life of de la Cerna shows that killers are not scared of the police. We, in the law profession, can only shout in despair and condemn the assassins, but that is all we can do. The police and other investigating agencies should leave no stone unturned, not because de la Cerna is a lawyer, but because it was a crime against the State and it disturbed the peace in the city.

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It may look funny, but it’s true. Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Chief Nicanor Faeldon is now the butt of the jokes and at the same time the focus of condemnation for the release of the prisoners convicted of heinous crimes after he assumed office.

When Faeldon was the chief of the Bureau of Customs, tons of shabu landed on their noses. Now that he is the chief of the BuCor, several convicted criminals of heinous crimes walked out in utter abuse of the law on Good Conduct Time Allowance. The parents and relatives of the victims could only yell to high heavens.

Perhaps, carried by the negative public sentiments on the release of convicted three Chinese drug lords, the convicted rapist-murderers of the Chiong sisters and the aborted release of convicted rapist-murderer Antonio Sanchez, the Palace through Sen. Bong Go announced that it is ready to let go of Faeldon. But for delicadeza sake, Faeldon should volunteer to resign.

This is a sad spectacle in the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose relentless drive against illegal drugs had put him in the international limelight on the alleged extrajudicial killings. With the red flags already up against Faeldon, Duterte should not wait for the result of the investigation.

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