For really cracking down on crime, will Jaylo soon be ‘jobless’?

I’m sure there are quite a number who wish we could take a breather from political hype and strife and get back to trying to improve our bankrupt and further deteriorating education system, restore business morale – and indeed, concentrate, in these hard times when foreign investment has abysmally dried up, on somehow eking out a living.

However, the war to eject La Gloria from the Presidency goes on unabated. Oh well. Let’s see how "impeachment" fares. We’ve all heard the testimony and the belligerent after-jabs of Michaelangelo Zuce, who somehow resembles the famous movie comedian Ike Lozada (but Ike was jolly in his day). Now, the rumor mills are in overdrive over the "coming" "shocker" by the Junior of an old-time politician from Isabela, whose "revelations" – the opposition crows – will nail GMA and family to the jueteng tree. The touters of the anticipated "testimony" (if it ever materializes) claim it will have the same bombshell effect as the "Chavit" Singson attack on Erap.

Susmariosep. Who will they bring up next? From "Hello, Garci" to the Fat Man, then, perhaps, Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dy? Two opposition stalwarts have flown to the US hoping to get a damning "affidavit."

Then there are the congressmen whose votes may be crucial to the "impeachment" process. The buzz is that quite a number of them, knowing their role in the impeachment struggle will be pivotal, are beginning to assert themselves. They’ve been recommending all sorts of hijados and other protegés to the Palace for appointments in juicy positions, including plum salas in the judiciary. This is the evil the current conflict is inflicting on our country.

When all is said and done, as we said yesterday in this tired old corner, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales is right. In the headlong rush for a quick fix to our problems, like jueteng and politics, our people are being taught the wrong values. We’ve lost, for instance, the values of discipline and sacrifice. That’s why we lurch, he pointed out, from crisis to crisis," "from corruption to corruption." Pardon me for sounding repetitious.

Another value we’ve lost, which is intimately linked to the two mentioned above, is real patriotism. We pay lip service to it in all our speeches and press releases. But too few love our country. Too many love only themselves.

The other side of the same tawdry coin is "selfishness." You see it everywhere, but it’s specially obvious in the way we drive.

There’s no traffic jam, however, to the door which is marked "Give." The scramble is to the other door which is labelled, "Get."

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With everybody concentrated, seemingly, on politics and the "vote-rigging" allegations these days, who’s paying attention to the war on Terrorism? Sanamagan, with the House mired in impeachment and parliamentary "change" debates, and the Senate holding jueteng inquiries (while speculation festers over whether Senate President Franklin Drilon is coming or going), Congress can’t even manage to pass an Anti-Terrorism Law giving teeth to a crackdown on terrorists, "bombers" and saboteurs.

In the meantime, suicide-bombers and run-of-the-mill jihadis and other bombers, have been exploding trains, buses and resort facilities in London, Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt, and, of course, as usual in Baghdad and all over Iraq. I hope, while we’re all looking the other way, our own homegrown and imported terrorists are not planning another bombing outrage or other violent caper to snap our attention back to the nitty gritty.

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Let’s veer away from the political circus for a moment and look at a genuine success story for a change. The awful truth is that the two-fisted lawman of our tale, Captain Reynaldo H. Jaylo, Chief of the Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force, has been too successful in collaring criminals and busting syndicate operations "protected" by powerful officials and cops that President GMA has been under relentless pressure to kick him out of his job.

What’s worse is that she may do so, having been badgered into believing him "too controversial."

More than a year ago, on July 9, 2004, GMA herself created the Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force, called PAIRTF in acronym, and named Jaylo – whose "Dirty Harry" exploits in the pursuit of fighting crime (although he doesn’t resemble Clint Eastwood) are legendary. In sum, Rey is the sort of "Marshal" or "Sheriff", not from the West, but from the Wild, Wild East, who doesn’t hesitate to shoot if the bad guys attempt to draw against him.

The President had grown alarmed by the growing problem of illegal recruitment on a large scale, so menacing that it could be classified as "economic sabotage" under Republic Act 8042, and victimizing thousands of Filipino migrant workers. The Presidential order even exended Jaylo’s Task Force the mandate, through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), to hunt down human traffickers covered by R.A. 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

In La Presidenta’s own words, she had recruited "the fearless former Police Captain Reynaldo H. Jaylo . . ." She declared that Jaylo would "hunt down" these illegal recruiters and make them pay for their crimes." She added: "I am giving (Jaylo) an initial budget of P10 million to do (his) job."

The Task Force was given only a year of existence (until July 9, 2005) to accomplish this assignment. Alas, of the promised P10 million, only P4.5 million was released for the PAIRTF’s operational expenses.

Nonetheless, Jaylo and his operatives made 465 arrests and "saved" 4,855 victims both in the illegal recruitment and anti-trafficking in persons rackets. In busting some operations, 25 foreign nationals were nabbed and a total of 17 Warrants of Arrest served. No less than 157 syndicates and large-scale rackets "neutralized" (to invoke that favorite police term). The arrests made by Jaylo and his PAIRTF surpassed in total those made by all other law enforcement agencies combined.

In one raid on a Cyber Sex Den in Quezon City, which resulted in the "rescue" of seven women from "sexual exploitation", two armed foreigners operating the racket, brothers at that: Willen Connelis Chevi von Engelenburg and Hedrickus Erik Von Engelenburg, drew automatics and attempted to shoot it out with Jaylo and his men. Both were shot down. The Dutchmen concerned were no amateurs. Both of them had served in the Netherlands Special Forces. Sadly for them, they found out too late that to "draw" against Captain Jaylo is tantamount to committing suicide.

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Another "coup" by PAIRTF was the unmasking of the biggest exporter and supplier of Filipino women, mostly minors, to Japan.

On July 15, 2005, armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Antonio M. Eugenio, Jr., of RTC Branch 24 Manila, Jaylo led his Task Force in a raid on an office called "Billboard Promotions" in which 60 women, five of whom were minors, being held, the women said later, against their will. Sad to relate, when cases of Anti-Trafficking in Person (under R.A. 9208) and Illegal Recruitment (under R.A. 8042) were filed against the alleged boss of the operation, a guy nicknamed Tonton, a.k.a. Apa, and his confederates, the arrested suspects were released "for further investigation" by the Inquest Prosecutor in Mandaluyong City. We can only surmise that "Tonton", as he bragged, is really influential with the big shots whose names he has been dropping.

The most recent crackdown was that of last August 2 (Tuesday) in which a woman Immigration Officer, assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport was caught en flagrante, receiving marked money in the amount of P70,000, from one of her alleged victims. The four would-be victims had been promised jobs in South Korea if they coughed up "fees" totalling P680,000 – and had reported the matter, leading to a sting operation being mounted by a joint team of PAIRTF and Bureau of Immigration agents. It was found that the suspect not only illegally recruited prospective "marks" for so-called employment in Korea, but provided escort services for exiting migrant workers at the NAIA.

On the evening of July 6, 2005 – in another raid – PAIRTF agents swooped down on the 8th floor of a hotel on Roxas boulevard in Malate and found a massage clinic being utilized as a front for prostitution. The agents arrested three of the operators of the massage parlor after catching two women in actual sexual intercourse with customers. Fifteen other "attendants" were interrogated. Many of the women attendants maintained they had been recruited for regular massage work, etc., but had discovered they had to provide other "services." The customers, either foreign nationals or locals, were alleged to have had to pay P1,400 for "room charge" together with the massage, then an amount of P2,000 up to P5,000 for "extra service" of you know what.

What’s interesting is that after the operators were arrested, several influential "friends", including a congressman and two ranking police officers tried to step in and intercede for them.

Has Jaylo stepped on too many toes and made too many enemies? You bet.

The PAIRTF is being closed down – after all, its shelf-life was only one year.

Where will Jaylo go? Here’s a man who’s relentless in what he feels is his mission to fight crime and racketeers. This may prove his undoing. In this sick society of ours, it’s the racketeers and their padrinos who seem to have the upper hand, even in the highest corridors of power.