Cong Corrales
I ACCEPTED Manang Rhona Canoy’s challenge she posted on her column last week. The challenge is to somehow define the breadth and depth of the culture of impunity in the country.
Many articles have been written on the culture of impunity which has claimed lives of fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends, and comrades.
I will do that in the next columns but for now let me start by stating what moves law enforcers to take shortcuts, ergo promotes the continuing culture of impunity: laziness in doing honest-to-goodness police work.
Surfing the Internet over the weekend, I came across a news item I wrote for Mindanews before. It’s about the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s big score here in when the narcs intercepted some P20 million worth of suspected shabu.
How they did it would put to shame the “anti-drug operations” in recent weeks. Why, you ask? Believe it or not, they were able to intercept the drugs without killing anybody, and through good old-fashioned police work.
Then PDEA-10 regional director, Roberto Opeña, told me in an interview that they employed what they called “controlled delivery operation.” It was a multi-agency operation and because they did not kill the consignee of the parcel, they were able to get information from him as to where the drugs were intended to be delivered. From there, they scored even more busts.
That’s what happens when you’re dead serious in putting a stop to the supposed drug menace in the country.
The way to hurt the drug lords (the real drug lords, I mean) is to squeeze their supply chain, I remember Opeña telling me then.
By killing “leads” at every engagement, you’ll never get to the bottom of the problem or better yet you’ll never get to the highest rung of the drug trade ladder.
This recent wave of impunity only shows how lazy our law enforcers have become. Nothing beats old-fashioned police work. In the vernacular we call it: Diniyos nga pagtrabaho.
Impunity reigns when the commander-in-chief encourages law enforcers to take shortcuts just to show its citizens a maverick way of stopping the supposed drug menace that’s eating up the country.
Manang Rhona, this is not my answer to the challenge you’ve posted. I’m just starting to lay the predicate for my argument. Till next week, manang.
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