In terms of sheer dramatic impact, President Rodrigo Duterte’s disclosure of five PNP officials who are allegedly protectors of drug lords in last Tuesday’s gathering at the Philippine Air Force reminded me of an August 1992 incident involving then vice president Joseph Estrada and the late Chief Insp. Jose “Joe” Pring.
Pring, whose life story was made into two action movies starring movie legend Philip Salvador, was invited along with Chief Insp. Timoteo Zarcal in a news conference at Estrada’s home.
After some pleasantries, the vice president produced a witness, a lowly police officer who admitted to being part of a kidnap ring and the police officer identified Pring and Zarcal as responsible for the spate of kidnappings of Filipino Chinese businessmen.
The shocked look on both Pring and Zarcal’s faces after they were ordered arrested on the spot by Estrada drew praise from the public and from then president Fidel V. Ramos, whom Duterte credited for convincing him to run for the presidency.
Pring denied the allegations and both him and Zarcal were acquitted two years later. Since it occurred 25 years ago, I had to do some Google research for some facts and then I came across a Manila Standard news story that stated that Pring died in December 15, 1994 in an ambush by unidentified armed assailants during a rush-hour traffic jam in Sampaloc, Manila.
His colleague Zarcal was assassinated eight months earlier by the Alex Boncayao Brigade, a Sparrow unit of the communist New People’s Army (NPA). Based on the Manila Standard story, Pring was quoted as challenging the Sparrow units “to come and get me” but the only evidence of the identities of the assailants was destroyed when one of them held an ABS-CBN cameraman at gunpoint and destroyed the camera.
Again, President Rodrigo Duterte minced no words in saying that the war on drugs “will be dirty” and that he won’t apologize for the consequences of that war. But based on a casual reading of public sentiment on his public disclosure of the names of the five generals, who included retired police directors Manuel Garbo and Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot, no public apology was needed.
In fact, some of the people I came across said it was about time someone stood up and named names. In emphasizing his point, President Duterte told his audience and those monitoring the live coverage on TV and radio that these accused officials were paid for by taxpayers’ money, including the very clothes they wear and the education they received, only to turn out as alleged protectors of drug lords.
And it doesn’t take a genius to know that President Duterte might just be right; what they were accused of doing is treason any way one calls it.
A police official/officer or local official who’s supposed to protect you and look after you but ends up protecting those that poison the country’s youth and its people with drugs and profits obscenely from it commits treason of the highest order.
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Speaking of the NPA, Jose Maria Sison’s declaration of support to the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs should be viewed on a broader perspective, though I admit to some personal reservations about it.
For one, Duterte’s declaration that he wouldn’t save police officials caught doing drugs from prosecution by the NPA speaks of his tolerance for their actions that, in a previous administration and time, would be considered extra judicial and therefore illegal.
Sison, the exiled chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, justified the killings and even expounded on the observation that the CPP-NDF-NPA are acting like a separate government in the country by saying that this government is acting on behalf of the Filipino people.
With Duterte’s admission of being a socialist and a former student of Sison, I’m not surprised by Sison’s current outspoken and proactive stance. It’s also no small surprise that the CPP-NDF-NPA is joining the anti-drug campaign in order to win brownie points with the public.
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Oplan TokHang (Toktok Hangyo) is the legal stratagem that can serve to protect the police from prosecution as promised by President Duterte.
The papers that these suspected drug users and dealers signed can be used as basis by the police in their legal defense in the event that these users and dealers return to their former life only to end up in an armed confrontation with the police.
Since they were also profiled, it makes it easier for the police to track them down as well. As Duterte himself said, he is a former prosecutor and he knows the ins and outs of courtroom trials.