Fellow PMAyers call on Sinas to step down

AS this column was being written Monday — May 18, 2020 — MGen. Debold Sinas had retained his position as chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, despite being charged for alleged violation of the quarantine law and its rules.

Gen. Archie Gamboa, top honcho of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said Sinas was irreplaceable.

“Napakahirap palitan ( He is so hard to replace),” Gamboa said of his fair- haired boy.

Pray tell, why is Sinas indispensable when there are so many other PNP officers who are as competent, or even more competent, and who follow the rules to the letter?

What is so special about Sinas that Gamboa would risk his career defending a recalcitrant subordinate?

People are wondering that there must be something going on between the two of them.

Yes, they’re both Bisaya (referring to a Filipino ethnocultural linguistic group speaking the Cebuano language), but is that all?

There must be more to it than their tongue.

I’ve asked some graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the alma mater of the two, and I was shocked with their revelation.

But I can’t just blurt it out here because what those fellow PMAyers

of Gamboa and Sinas said was told to me in confidence.

***

Forget about what those other PMAyers said because they’re probably envious of Gamboa and Sinas, but the most incisive call for Sinas to resign comes from a very senior PMA alumnus, retired LtGen. Ramon Farolan.

Farolan, who writes a column for another newspaper, is a member of PMA Class 1956 and was Air Force commanding general when he retired in 1986.

Sinas, on the other hand, graduated from the PMA in 1987, or 31 years after Farolan graduated.

Farolan epitomizes the PMA motto of “courage, integrity, loyalty.” This guy is oozing with integrity.

Farolan in his first term as commissioner of the Bureau of Customs cleaned up the corruptladen agency of crooks.

Reappointed Customs commissioner during the time of President Joseph Estrada, Farolan resigned after only a few days in office when a presidential relative asked him to go slow on his smuggler- friends.

Farolan could not stomach smuggling taking place under his very nose.

The following are excerpts from Farolan’s column article last Monday headlined, “Maj. Gen. Sinas should step down.”

“We need to have full trust and confidence in our leaders, especially those who are tasked to enforce the tough laws and restrictions that are being imposed on all of us for the good of the community. We expect that they will do so without fear or favor and that they will apply to themselves the strictest observance of those rules and regulations.

“As an elder from Fort Del Pilar ( PMA campus RTT), let me offer General Sinas some food for thought. Your apology would take on greater meaning if you stepped down from your position. Accept that you made a poor judgment call, showing insensitivity to the plight of the less fortunate. Don’t wait for higher authorities to decide your case. It takes courage and an inner strength to do the right thing. People will respect you and the institution you represent will be better for the example you represent.”

If Sinas is not moved by Farolan’s call for him to resign then he has a face made of iron.

His fellow “cavaliers,” who still believe in the PMA’s honor code, will make him a pariah.

***

And to PNP Chief Gamboa, on his defense of Sinas, a message from his predecessor, retired Gen. Art Lomibao, on social media:

“What happened to the PNP mantra, ‘ to enforce the law without fear or favor’? Has it been downgraded as a footnote?”

For that matter, that message should also be meant for Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, a member of PMA Class 1983.

Año, being Interior Secretary, has supervision over the PNP.

Lomibao graduated from the PMA in 1972.