Regardless of what Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña says, he has little recourse other than a court date as far as securing his operational control and deputation authority over the city police is concerned.
Regional Director Homer Mariano Cabaral of the National Police Commission (Napolcom-7) advised the mayor on what to do about that, which is to go straight to President Rodrigo Duterte.
An earlier editorial we came out with pointed to this inevitability after Mayor Osmeña decided to withdraw the allowances and the vehicles from the Cebu City police following his displeasure over the removal of his favored Cebu police officials whom he considered to be instrumental in making big gains in his own version of the war against illegal drugs, a war that he turned into a contest between him and the president.
But aside from him, no one’s keeping score except perhaps his followers and those whom President Duterte called the “liberal bleeding hearts” who continue to denounce the mounting casualty count in the war against illegal drugs.
These “bleeding hearts”, those who question the conduct and the take-no-prisoners approach towards drug suspects, should be listened to and heeded more not only by President Duterte, Mayor Osmeña but also those who joined in the administration’s war.
Instead here in Cebu City and elsewhere around the country, the spectacle of police officers being transferred due to their drug links and local officials like Osmeña being divested of their operational control and deputation of the police has somewhat muddled the issue further.
Again, the answer is pretty simple and one that Mayor Osmeña will have to deal with eventually. The mayor’s critics accuse him of being arrogant and used to getting his way, and he may have expected to get some support from President Duterte whom he was pictured with as being close friends and allies.
But the Napolcom order which Cabaral said came straight from President Duterte hammered home to the mayor the realization that he’s not dealing with Mar Roxas and former president Noynoy Aquino anymore with whom he can get political concessions.
The mayor can either go to Malacañang and ask the President himself to restore his operational authority, following some intercession perhaps from his allies in Congress, or he can continue to lash out at Cabaral, whom he accused of not doing anything about his former neighbor, slain suspected drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz in his capacity as Napolcom regional chief.
Whether or not there are people within the President’s circle who have been critical of the mayor and influenced Mr. Duterte to issue the order, again the mayor has very little choice on the matter.
And the city government owes Cebu City residents a fully supported city police that can protect and serve them effectively.
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