Kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, murder not jueteng

If Joey Lina is wondering why his dramatic sacking of seven high ranking police officers is not getting more widespread support, it is because he did it for the wrong reason. Not that illegal gambling should be condoned, but that there are more important things for our police to do than stop people from gambling and competing with lotto. Most likely, those police officers should be sacked, but Joey should have given the right reason to do so.

On the same day that this newspaper announced Joey’s order to sack the PNP brass, there was also this major front page story about how a Chinese trader was forced by WPD officers to cough up P5 million, his Rolex watch, credit cards and a blank check that was eventually cashed for P250,000. Worse, the trader was kept at the WPD headquarters while the ransom was awaited.

If Joey was looking for a reason to remove the WPD chief, that story should be a good one. If that’s not enough, there is this story last Monday about a dozen WPD cops who tried to bribe Baguio anti narcotic cops into releasing a drug pusher. That should be another good reason to kick the WPD chief out of office, for harboring scalawags. It is obvious the WPD is no longer Manila’s Finest, the way I used to remember it when I had to cover the police beat as a rookie reporter.

It should also be easy for Joey to look for valid reasons to relieve the head of the PNP in Central Luzon. Just a couple of high profile kidnapping cases which ended up in Region 3, the Barrera sisters and the doctora whose family owned a meat processing firm, should be enough. He need not be involved in those cases but the mere fact that those cases were not resolved by the PNP should be reason enough to get him out of there.

In fact, if Joey wants to be fair, he should include the incoming PNP director general in his list. It is pathetic when the national anti-kidnapping task force headed by the in-coming top honcho, loses three dangerous Muslim kidnap gang leaders being held in their headquarters in Crame. In Japan, where honor means something for gentlemen-officers, the senior officer responsible for the unit would have resigned on his own. In Joey’s magical land, they are promoted.

Jueteng is evil, no doubt, but given the magnitude of our problems in the peace and order front and the limited resources at hand, the PNP must choose its priorities well. Peace and order should be on top of this list. Kidnapping, murder, rape and all forms of violent crimes against persons and property should be addressed more forcefully. The anti-drug campaign should also be part of this list, given that a number of violent crimes have their roots in this evil.

I think it is unfair to play with the careers of those senior police officers solely on the basis of their perceived failure to deal with jueteng. Heck, I don’t even know where jueteng is played where I live and I don’t care. But I do care that even in our so-called gated community, a number of break-ins in residences in our street, have happened. It bothers me that I have to worry every time a member of the family has to be out of the house beyond sun down.

I am sure the fact that jueteng flourishes has nothing to do with the inability of Mar Roxas to convince investors to risk their money here. Personal insecurity arising from a chaotic peace and order situation is the reason why local entrepreneurs with capital resources are going abroad instead of investing here and creating jobs.

I just read a story on the Internet about Davao’s Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. That Time magazine article is about how the mayor imposed peace and order in that southern city, but at a price. Joey should read that article. It shows how important peace and order is, how citizens will close their eyes to short cuts in the criminal justice system just so they can live in peace. That’s why Ping Lacson is so popular.

The moral lesson of that article simply is, we may end up with a national version of Rodrigo Duterte unless this administration puts a lid on crime soon. Citizens want to sleep more peacefully, no longer worried about crooked cops and flourishing crime syndicates. Heaven knows we need a Rudy Duterte instead of a Joey Lina! But we lose something too in the process and we may eventually find out we paid a high price for peace of mind. But for now, give me a Rudy Duterte!

Joey and Ate Glo should forget jueteng and concentrate on the Big Stuff. They can go ahead and fire those police officers, to show they mean business, but for the right reason.

I am afraid that with the controversy over Joey’s firings, he will be too busy defending himself to even worry about peace and order. The rest of the police officers will also be so worried they may be next so that they will focus scarce time and resources fighting jueteng and forgetting the really serious crimes. This would make this country one really dangerous place to live in.

Guam

I received this e-mail from a reader from Guam, Dexter Rubiato. Here are excerpts from his e-mail.

I was one of the thousands who watched the Gary V-Jamie Rivera concert last week. It was really good. I have seen Gary in concert more than five times when I was still living in the Philippines and it hasn’t stop to amaze me how he handles the crowd! Awesome!

The Philippine mangoes you saw at K-Mart are the really expensive ones. If you go to Payless or John Dell (owned by a rich Filipino from Batangas), the mangoes they are selling are for $30 per box, containing 16-20 mangoes. Pretty expensive but very delicious!

There are three Jollibee stores in Guam. There’s also a big Flea Market (palengke whose majority sellers are Filipino) every Saturday and Sunday morning). A lot of Filipino professional workers are working here. A third of the medical professionals are Filipinos and I’m not just talking of nurses. A lot of specialist doctors are Filipino. A lot of accountants who are employed by Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche are Filipinos. Filipino teachers are being recruited because of the lack of specialty teachers on island. There are only four actuaries on the island and all of them are Filipinos.

There are a lot more of this island that is Filipino. It’s a Philippines away from the Philippines ... I hope you enjoyed your stay here on Guam!

Obviously

Fe dela Cruz contributed this one for today.

A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Hunting flies" he responded.

"Oh!, killed any?" she asked.

"Yep, three males, two females," he replied.

Intrigued, she asked. "How can you tell?"

He responded, "three were on a beer can, two were on the phone".

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])