Open letter to Bato

Letter

DEAR Director General Ronald dela Rosa,

Sir, what about your service’s motto, “To Serve and to Protect,” do you not get?

One would think it is self-explanatory.

Why then do you blame media for the bad rep the Philippine National Police has been getting over its members’ killing of young men, which even your own investigators – never mind a broad spectrum of the Filipino people, yes, they who you are sworn “To Serve and to Protect” – seriously suspect did not die in shootouts but were summarily executed, in violation of your motto and the laws of the land?

You insinuate that media are to blame for the wholesale relief and retraining of Caloocan’s police force. Why, did media order their relief and retraining?

Oh, and to be clear Sir, the relief of the city police did not even come right after the deaths of Kian Lloyd delos Santos and of Carlo Angelo Arnaiz – okay, okay, we will nitpick as well as you do and not include Reynaldo de Guzman … for now anyway – but after round a dozen Caloocan policemen, with civilian assets, one of them a minor, in tow illegally searched AND robbed the home of an old woman.

Even your complaint that media give too much attention to the deaths of Kian and Carl – again, we stress, at the hands of lawmen – and not enough to the Caloocan policeman stabbed while responding to calls for help does not hold water.

While it is unfortunate that PO1 Anicete was wounded in the performance of his sworn duty, surely even you would agree that you and everyone who enlists in the state’s security forces willingly acknowledges injury or worse as part of the risks of the job. And for being true to his oath of duty, he was deservingly awarded, a fact media reported, unless you failed to, or refused to, realize this.

But when those sworn to uphold the law and protect the people violate those laws and harm the people, shouldn’t you be more alarmed, angered even, about such abominations than what these could do to the image of the service, which incidentally can be repaired, but only if you seriously address these problems with thorough reforms?

Indeed, Sir, you are absolutely correct to tell the Caloocan personnel undergoing retraining to always remember “na itong pagpupulis ko ay serbisyo ito. Bahala na ano’ng sabihin nila diyan, hindi kailangan kami magpapapogi, magpapasikat,” so long, of course, as they carry out their duties faithfully and well.

Once the PNP begins truly “To Serve and to Protect,” we assure you, you need not worry about media dishing out bad news about you. Because then, there would be no bad news to report.

Until then, Sir, we truly wish you good luck but, sorry, cannot oblige your wish to cut you some slack. Not when our people’s lives are in the balance. –Dabet Panelo, secretary-general, National Union of Journalists if tthe Philippines

Turnaround

FROM a fighting stance replete with harsh words during Duterte’s early days as President, he recently said that he would rather be friendly now with the United States because the Americans have “redeemed themselves” and “have helped us a lot.”

This is another blow against our campaign for genuine independence from the United States. And to add insult to injury, the President announced it during the 116th Balangiga Encounter Day in Balangiga, Eastern Samar thus spoiling a people’s commemoration of the valiant action of the people of Balangiga where the locals outsmarted and killed 48 out of 74 US troops in 1901.

Balangiga is the site of a historic siege that led to the US military’s worst single defeat in the Philippines where the siege was signaled Balangiga bells, which the US eventually took as spoils of war. But the US government retaliated and killed all Filipino males aged 10 and above, reducing Samar Island into a howling wilderness.

People expected the President to slam the US again during the 116th Balangiga Encounter Day but did the opposite.  The President’s admitted that the US provide crucial equipment to AFP in Marawi to fight the terrorists and that we must consider the previous US abuses of “water under the bridge”. By so doing, President Duterte himself and cohorts who are pro-U.S imperialist’s wars of aggression have sold our nation’s dignity and have chosen to serve their foreign masters.

Mr. President, our demand is beyond the return of the Balangiga bells per se. If you want to honor the bravery of the locals who fought against the Americans 116 years ago, live up to your earlier pronouncements of cutting off ties with the US and be independent of control by any other nations too. –Benjie Valbuena, President of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers