PROTECTION, safety and security for the family.
These are all but the most important gifts we could extend to our loved ones these days. Especially when Covid pandemic is still lurking and threatening. Just when I thought that getting news about loved ones and friends being afflicted with the dreaded virus would be over, I got an even sadder news of a former colleague who died last week.
While Covid continues to claim lives, all the more we need to guard against other threats. There are still petty crimes like robbery, hold-up, snatching and what have you that sometimes lead to injuries and even deaths. Thus, public safety cannot be taken for granted.
With election season coming up, we should be able to capitalize on this political exercise to help get better protection. Of course, we could install CCTVs, get village security, deploy barangay tanods and what have you. But we should be able to rely on our leaders too. Not just on their words or promises but on what they accomplish for us.
We should get public safety and protection for everyone that is institutionalized. This means getting the side of the law towards strengthening law enforcement and the advocacy itself.
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In Congress for example, we can choose leaders like a representation for law enforcers and advocates for protection of Filipino families. PATROL party list is one bold voice in the House of Representatives in the 18th Congress. And it should remain in there for as long as it takes. For as long as it is doing its job.
So far, Cong. Jorge Bustos, a Cabalen from Masantol, has not let people and voters down. He has quite several measures at the lower house which ultimate objective is to protect the Filipino family while also helping out those who protect them – the law enforcers, first responders, frontline workers and the like.
Being the frontman of Patrol Party List, he has introduced proposals and laws in support of its core ideals; public safety, crime prevention, disaster preparedness, and national development. In his first two years as a member of the legislature, he has championed the passage of several laws, with a total of almost 200 congressional bills, some of which are his original authorships, and some are co-authorships.
Despite being a neophyte in the Congress, he was able to prove his worth as a legislator and was appointed as vice-chairperson of three significant House committees; Committee on Public Order and Safety, Committee on National Defense and Security, Committee on Dangerous Drugs. He also serves as a member of much coveted committees in the House of Representatives; Committee on Strategic Intelligence, Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability, Committee on Public Accounts, Committee on Ways and Means.
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In his first term as Congressman, Bustos, a member of the 1996 “Kaagapay” Clas of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNP), focused on empowering agencies and institutions closest to his heart -- the PNP and its academy, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Bureau of Corrections, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and other law enforcement and public safety agencies. He also pushed for measures for the benefit of public safety practitioners and volunteers, a sector cherished by Bustos.
You see, Bustos resigned his commission as PNP officer not because of personal ambitions but to go for a higher calling, a noble mission.
He could have been a young PNP general by this time where he should have been commanding respect even while raising his feet on his table in Camp Crame or other camps.
But he chose a different path. One that is not rosy at all. On the other end, it might be thorny for him as he has had to battle it out for family protection measures against 303 other members of the House.
He has done quite well. Had he not done so, he would not have gotten key positions especially with him as a neophyte. Proof of that is his being appointed as vice-chairperson of three significant House committees; Committee on Public Order and Safety, Committee on National Defense and Security, Committee on Dangerous Drugs. He also serves as a member of much coveted committees in the House of Representatives; Committee on Strategic Intelligence, Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability, Committee on Public Accounts, Committee on Ways and Means.
Aside from crafting laws in furtherance of Patrol’s advocacies, Cong. “Patrol” Bustos has been chosen as the country’s representative to the 24th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Stakeholders Session on the Chemical Weapons Convention at The Hague, Netherlands in 2019. And in 2020 and 2021, he was designated to represent the Republic of the Philippines in the Meetings of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Association (AIPA) Advisory Council on Dangerous Drugs.
That is a first term Congressman? Not a veteran yet but he seemed to know exactly what he is doing. He (and Patrol) deserves to maintain that seat in the House of Representatives.