EDITORIAL - No stopping on a dime, or more

There appears to be this tendency among people in authority to make public declarations, normally in the course of some investigation, about finally having determined the identities of some people, usually suspects in a case being investigated.

There is nothing wrong in that. In fact, it has to be conceded that for any investigator to finally determine the identity of a suspect or suspects is a step forward. It means that the case is moving, that no one is sitting on his fat haunches.

But then, everything always appears to go wrong after that public announcement. It seems that what is being disclosed is just the mere fact of identification of the suspects but not the names themselves, which in effect renders the fact useless.

If the investigators are not prepared to make public disclosures of any names, then it is better for everyone not make any disclosures at all about having made any identification. Aside from frustrating the normal curiosity of people, it also renders the investigation suspect.

Take the case of the disclosure of Rep. Roque Ablan, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, that the local contacts of suspected bigtime shabu financier Calvin Tan have already been identified.

After saying that the local contacts of Tan have been identified, and that some of them are local businessmen and officials, Ablan stopped short of naming them. That is not fair to everyone, from the general public as well as to people who may fall within those categories.

Now, we are not trying to impugn the integrity of Ablan, but tactics such as this have been used by others to place certain people on the spot, put them on the defensive, and soften them up sufficiently for whatever designs the " identifier " may have.

What may seem like progress in an investigation by people in other countries is seen by Filipinos made discerning by long exposure to a corrupt system as just another way of milking a cow or skinning a cat.

If officials have the goods, they should open them up. If they don't, then they better shut up. We do not want official investigations, especially this one about Tan, to be tainted, to be used, at the very least, as a publicity stunt, or worse, as a means to extort.