We’d rather be wrong than dead right
LET this be a lesson to overzealous cops.
The Internal Affairs Service (IAS) of the Philippine National Police, a unit within the PNP that polices fellow policemen, has recommended the dismissal of the police chief of a town in Bukidnon for “planting” a gun beside a slain drug suspect.
The police official concerned is LtCol. Cipriano Bazar Jr. of Valencia.
The IAS wants Bazar dismissed, along with six of his men, for the death of drug suspect Pol Estanol in Barangay Batangan on Feb. 20, 2021.
Unfortunately for Bazar’s subordinates, somebody took a video of them firing a gun three times and placing it beside Estanol’s body. The video has since gone viral.
Bazar’s fault was tolerating the crime of his subordinates by not filing charges against them; in short, command responsibility.
He compounded his mistake by ordering his subordinates to visit the person who uploaded the viral video and forcing this person to delete the video.
Although the IAS has bared its fangs, recommending the dismissal of the policemen was not enough. It should have also filed criminal charges against them.
Many policemen probably don’t know or just plain ignore this: “Planting” of guns as “evidence” can carry a penalty of reclusion perpetua — 20 years and 1 day to 40 years — if the people who did it are public officers or employees, under the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
The IAS should not only be censured for only recommending the dismissal of the erring policemen, but also for not recommending the filing of criminal charges against them.
IAS Inspector General Alfegar Triambulo should be aware of the laws governing the planting of guns as evidence.
If Triambulo is ignorant of that law, he should be replaced by a more knowledgeable official.
The government is wasting money paying Triambulo for his ignorance.
I hate to admit it, but my once favorite whipping boy, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, is right in scolding both protagonists in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue for washing our country’s dirty linen in the international community.
“Isn’t it sad and ironic that the WPS issue has degenerated into a finger-pointing argument between former justice [Antonio] Carpio and [President Digong Duterte] and not between the Philippines and China? Don’t you just want to cry, Philippines?” Lacson said on Twitter.
Lacson’s beef with Carpio is in accusing the President for supposedly being subservient to China in resolving the quarrel over part of the South China Sea, which we claim is our WPS.
By bickering over the WPS issue, says Lacson, the country is showing its weakness that China could exploit to its advantage.
“We should have a united position,” says Lacson, chairman of the Senate Committee on National Defense.
Lacson is also right in saying that the donation of vaccines by China should have nothing to do with upholding the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Bringing up the vaccine donation from China will only divide the country and people.
However, this columnist takes issue with the senator from Cavite in his statement that the United States was bound by its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines, but that the country should take the initiative in asserting our right over the disputed area.
If a shooting war breaks out between our country and China, the US Congress will have to approve whether to come to our defense.
By the time the United States comes to our aid — that is, if the US Congress enables the Mutual Defense Treaty — our puny naval force shall have been obliterated.
There is a saying, I’d rather be wrong than dead right.
Our Armed Forces can’t even beat the communist New People’s Army (NPA) and the ragtag Abu Sayyaf band, why should we expect them to beat the millions-strong Chinese People’s Liberation Army?
The hotheads among us don’t think of the consequences of going to war with a superpower.
The United States will first think of its national interest before it comes to our aid.
We are nothing in the eyes of the United States, especially since we drove them out of Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Subic Naval Base in Zambales and Bataan.
During the Second World War, some US Navy admirals wanted to bypass the Philippines on the island-hopping of its troops in the Pacific on their way to Japan.
But General Douglas McArthur insisted on keeping his promise of “I shall return” and so Manila, considered the “Pearl of the Orient,” was destroyed, practically down to the ground, by the US liberating forces.
Without the atomic bombs, Manila was one of the two most devastated cities in the world during the Second World War, Warsaw, being the other.
Hotheads, take heed of the words of North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, hero of Dien Bien Phu and conqueror of Saigon.
Giap defined the Vietnam War as “old men quarreled while young men died.”
Take heed also of an American anti-Vietnam War ditty by Peter, Paul and Mary and the Kingston Trio in the 1960s:
Where have all the young men gone, long time passing? Where have all the young men gone, long time ago? Where have all the young men gone?
Gone to soldiers everyone Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing? Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards everyone Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn?