A week ago, Secretary Benhur Abalos stunned the nation with the biggest yet truth about corruption and crime in the Philippines involving government officials—cops in particular , or some of them, anyway. He bared before the nation in a press conference what he described as a massive cover-up on a P6.7 billion worth of drugs captured by cops from , shocking but not surprising, their own.
It should have been another good day, if a not a better one , in the new government’s effort against corruption and the drug problem that continues to beset the nation. Except that, there is another unpleasant reality. To be sure, there had been other similar shenanigans uncovered , like the Pharmally scam during the pandemic exposed by the Senate blue ribbon committee headed by former Senator Dick Gordon. There were equally sizable drug hauls in the past worth billions of pesos. The same modus operandi was established: cabals were behind the crime or corruption, and cover-up comes in handy.
Didn’t Gordon name who the members of the Pharmally cabal were, linking the previous president whom he wanted to be indicted? The much-maligned Ombusman found only some members guilty as named by Gordon but spared the highest official of the land. There you go. In another time, the same office defanged a Constitutional proviso mandating a SALN test for public officials, giving a free pass to many to laugh all the way to the bank.
No surprise then that the latest scandal is bigger, perhaps much bigger than it is shown. It rankles the nation to its soul anew , especially in the light of President Marcos’s pronouncement that he will continue the drug war of his predecessor but under a new strategy. A cabal was believed to be behind the latest cover up led by no less than generals, caught in a CCTV footage.
Enough of the police crucifixion or flagellation, as the case maybe. The chief of the Philippine National Police has finally spoken: the Cabinet member, an alter ego of the President,no less his superior, was not telling the truth. In other words, lying. It hurts him and other officers, because Abalos was not only unfair,but very unfair to him . By suggestion or implication, he linked generals ,named and unnamed, to the alleged cover-up.
But there’s another voice: a special task force formed to conduct the investigation has already come up with its own findings and confirmed Abalos’s bombshell: at least 49 cops were found criminally and administratively liable in the drug heist. So where’s the beef?
It’s in the footage itself, Exhibit A, Abalos a lawyer and a brave one , or a fool like Quixote who thought he could fight a windmill ,or the cabal, by himself. Perhaps more aptly, the picture tells a thousand words or acts. No word yet from President Bongbong Marcos ,who presumably handpicked both officials to help him in the new government to fight corruption and the drug menace. Caveat: the photo itself will not be decisive over the long haul. It’s if PBBM will see the photo Abalos’ way or the PNP chief’s way. The photo could provide a leeway for a win-win explanation. In the land of so many lawyers, where 10 lawyers can come up with 11 interpretations of the law, manage your expectation. In the kingdom of the blind, says King Lear, the one-eyed is king.
Three things to keep mind. Remember all three were on the same page that some cops are involved in the drug trade, so-called ninja cops. All three agreed to a new tack to deal with officers, from colonel to generals, who are considered ninja cops. All three agreed to ask the concerned officers to submit their courtesy resignation to a panel which shall determine who should go or stay in the service, no questions ask or cases filed.
The public is still in the dark as to whether the new approach was foolproof and effective. If you base your judgment on Abalos’ cover-up expose, it’s doubtful now . If you base it on Azurin’s belated denial of a cover up, it was. So who’s on the side of facts and the truth?
In the meantime, not a few PNP officials had admitted in recent Senate hearings of having been offered by “agents” of apparently drug dealers as high as 30 percent commission on drugs confiscated by the police. Not a few officers in the hearings confirmed that such offers to police do take place – a “kalakaran– in police offices. Why the officers, generals, in fact, don’t do nothing except merely refuse such offers make neophyte Senator Raffy Tulfo incredulous.
President Marcos and his wife are a currently celebrating their fidelity to one another on their . 30th wedding anniversary. He may not be in the mood to address a controversial issue on the same subject in his official family that has marked a fault line between his Cabinet member and his top cop. Or he is looking at a win-win solution so as to leave both unscathed without compromising the government’s position versus corruption and the war on drug under his watch.
But the biggest cover up in our time is on the investigation of the International Criminal Court on the allegation that a crime against humanity was committed during the war on drugs by the previous regime. So far, a cabal of present politicians and their ilk have delayed the probe with the ultimate goal of stopping it. In other words, they do not want the world to know the truth about the drug war that had cost from 6,000 to 30,000 Filipino lives.The cabal is led by no less than the President
Don’t be surprised then , Pluto, that we are not what we should be as nation. Unless, of course, Abalos stays on course and makes the difference.
“ When a republic’s venerable institutions no longer operate as they were intended , it becomes possible for small cabals to usurp the power and, while keeping the forms, corrupt the functions of the institutions for their own ends, “ T.D. Allman wrote. Abalos must have stepped on the raw nerve of one such cabal.
