HAVING superb intelligence network, then mayor Rody Duterte was invited to a senate hearing sometime in February 2014, to identify the person suspected of smuggling rice that often docked in the ports of Davao. In his opening statement, he criticized the Justice Department under Secretary Leila De Lima for a sluggish action to file cases against the smugglers.
Then he continued, saying: “The trouble with us in government is that we talk too much, act too slow, and do too little, don't we? What the country needs is not more laws but more good men in public service. Do we subscribe to that?”
The statement was a slam dunk! Everyone in the room was blitzed. The hearing was covered by the national televisions, and the viewers as if responding to the preparative count of cadence, exclaimed together in unison: “He is my next president!” Two years later, Duterte won in a landslide victory.
No doubt, President Duterte retained best intelligence assets since mayoral days. His wide network was only tainted when Malacañang came up with a “matrix of conspirators to oust the president” that included Hidilyn Diaz. Many questioned how could the national pride weightlifter involve self in a conspiracy?
Now, does the present government “talk too much, act to slow and do too little” for publicizing a drugs watchlist, without a methodical validation, similar to conspirator’s matrix? Or it is just that a manipulative publicist is going through a demolition job against the “good men in public service”?
General Albayalde and Colonel Espenido are not disposable cops after being used as drug busters in their respective assignments. It is only in Hollywood and local action movies and not in the serious war against drugs, that the assets working in the underground world as deep cover agents, that supplied classified information to their units will be disposed in due time.
What happened to Albayalde and Espenido reminded me of Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino who once headed the Special Enforcement Service of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). His uniform is well-decorated and colorful because of his excellent performance in the agency. But since 2016 he went through a tough battle of his career and security when the PNP and PDEA conducted a raid in Celadon apartment in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
The raid was successful but Marcelino faces charges without bail. The legitimacy of his presence in the vicinity to bust the shabu laboratory under “Oplan Moses” with ISAFP operatives was denied both Malacañang’s Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the then ISAFP Chief Army Lt. Col. Eduardo Año, now the DILG secretary, saying Marcelino’s commission expired since 2014. Marcelino’s lawyer claimed, the fate of Marcelino being an excellent performer in the war against drugs is part of PDEA’s demolition job.
We anticipate there is the so called “recycled drugs”, be it for sale or for evidence. So that internal cleansing is needed in the PNP and maybe in PDEA. But to surmise the valiant warriors like Albayalde and Espenido as enemies is a silent admittance that we are gradually losing the war. Because the malignant cells (cancer) of jealousy widely spread within the organization of warriors, and the leaders failed to distinguish between the true-blue and the disloyal.