NAPOLCOM'S regional office reported to its central office that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña “had decided to withdraw allowances to new police officers who were newly assigned to the police office.” He also decided not to release 15 patrol cars and three vans requested by the former city police chief.
Even basing on the report of Napolcom’s own regional office, Manila PNP must have known that the withdrawal of support was only partial, as it affected only new cops assigned in the city and, as to the vehicles, only regarding the request of the ex-police chief.
It did not include, as pointed out by Rep. Raul del Mar, supply of gasoline to police vehicles, use of the vehicles earlier given to the police, communication equipment and payments for the city PNP’s utility bills.
PNP might have struck back disproportionately and prematurely to Tomas’s anti-PNP posturing. Tomas’s word was still a threat.
PNP Chief Bato de la Rosa was just quick to the draw.
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If relations worsen
What happens if Cebu City (the mayor and the City Council) would decide to really cut off ALL AID this time?
Maybe the PNP bigwigs in Manila believe they could replace what City Hall would take away or end. Or they must think the city would do so that at its own peril: city residents would suffer from an immobilized or crippled police force.
Clearly, Davaoeños in Manila are matching Tomas’s “bitchiness” with their own, from one bully to another.
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Tomas’s bodyguards
PNP Manila decided to hit back with withdrawal of the mayor’s Napolcom deputation and his police bodyguards.
And one of security men was a cop whom the mayor helped get out of prison, one he must believe he could rely on to protect him.
All of a sudden, the possibilities of people trying to put the mayor in harm’s way have widened: from political enemies to drug traffickers and maybe even the police and its alleged illicit outsourcing group, the vigilantes.
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CPP-NPA raps ‘madness’
During the election season, the CPP-NPA and the Duterte campaign were clearly lovey-dovey with each other. But look at the rebel group’s recent potshots:
-- On drug war deaths: “a madness” that “upturns” the criminal justice system;
-- Duterte: “so full of himself and intoxicated
with power”
[bzzzzz@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com]