CORPORATE WATCH

Adjacent to the Marcos burial site at the 103-hectare Libingan is still another special area, the for-generals-only hill, near the also-special site for other deceased government luminaries and National Artists. But why is it that in the 253-hectare Arlington National Cemetery in the US, there is no segregation of generals from officers and soldiers?

Police head Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa when the latter filed for candidacy in the 2019 elections (philstar.com, Oct. 28, 2018).

Last month, an estimated P11 billion worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) in magnetic lifters in 40-foot container vans entered the country past Customs inspectors and Lapeña. Some people in the BoC are in cahoots with the drug syndicate, new PDEA director general (retired Police Chief Superintendent) Aaron Aquino said (msn. com, Aug. 11, 2018).

Two separate multibillion-peso drug smuggling cases involving the BoC, implicating two retired high-ranking police/military, and Pres. Duterte says, “they are not guilty...they were just outplayed [by the drug syndicates]” (philstar.com, Oct 28, 2018).

The widow at the Libingan ponders upon her husband’s grave. His first Military Merit Medal (Triple M) was pinned on him when his shoulder insignias were only those of a second lieutenant, entry level after graduation from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). Leading a small platoon of soldiers one evening, he intercepted a shipment of illegal firearms being spirited out of the Manila port. He was in the newspaper front pages then, with headlines lauding him, the brave young officer who thwarted and exposed a syndicated smuggling operation that cast doubts on the integrity of the Bureau of Customs. But the young hero was soon after reassigned to a small Army detachment in Nueva Ecija — to dampen his healthy curiosity and righteous action against what was amiss, perhaps.

“Sic transit Gloria mundi” — all must remember.

O