Revamp will mean nothing

Batas Mauricio

WHEN will Filipinos ever learn? Yes, this question is worth repeating over and over again, in view of mounting calls once more for the “total and complete revamp or overhaul” of the Bureau of Customs after Commissioner Nick Faeldon was sacked by President Duterte in connection with the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling at the Bureau.

I mean, no amount of “total and complete revamp or overhaul” of the Bureau of Customs, or any other government agency for that matter, in the sense of replacing all its officials from top to bottom at anyone given time, can really stop corruption or stealing of government funds.

What is needed for this revamp and overhaul to truly succeed in eradicating wrongdoing at the Bureau and in all other government agencies is the installation of officials and employees who are godly. Unless and until people who truly fear and love God are the ones appointed or elected in government, there will be no end to plunder, corruption, and a host of other misdeeds hereabouts.

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To avoid incredulity about claims by the Philippine National Police that the persons being killed in the course of its deadly anti-illegal drugs campaign are involved in drugs, it should take the initiative of immediately publicizing its dossiers or its so-called “orders of battle” specifically naming their supposed “high value targets”.

This way, those truly involved in drugs could either leave, or stop their nefarious trade altogether, to avoid being killed in the on-going “tokhang” operations. Or, the innocent ones whose names appear in the list can perhaps seek the aid of the courts to clear their names right away. The objective here is transparency and, of course, putting an end to drugs.

President Duterte already did this anyway, even if only partially. If the President did disclose some names at the start of his fierce campaign on drugs, why can’t the police do the same thing? Doing this should compel them to be more careful in their operations, and therefore stop inflicting “collateral damage” against ordinary and law-abiding citizens.

Police publicizing their dossiers or “orders of battle” will also put an end, or somehow lessen, criticisms that their “tokhang” operations constitute “extra-judicial killings” of drug suspects in order to silence them, to prevent them from spilling the beans on their cohorts.

I know this is skewered reasoning but if and when the people in the dossiers or “orders of battle” are killed, the usual police excuse for the death of the suspects — that they are into drugs — would somehow become more acceptable, and would not cause an uproar similar to the uproar generated by the death of the Caloocan City student Kian delos Santos.

The police should do this now — publicize its dossiers and “orders of battle”, that is — to show its sincerity in its campaign against illegal drugs. The situation would become vastly different if anyone, whether a single individual or a group of people, would later summon the courage to file a petition with the Supreme Court to compel the police to make that disclosure.

And, while we are tackling the issue of disclosures of dossiers and “orders of battle”, I think the same thing should be done with respect to the list of President Duterte. I believe that it would also be to the best interest of the country and its people if the contents of that list would also be publicized in full.

Of course, the list may not be 100-percent accurate and may hurt reputations, but it would be better to let the people whose names are in that list to know they are in the list! That way, they could be moved to either confess and then cut clean, so to speak, or avail of legal remedies to correct their inclusion in that list.

A disclosure of that list should then prompt some kind of a lifestyle audit of the personalities that are being connected with the trading of illegal drugs. This audit should focus on an examination of the sources of income of the persons in the list side by side with an inquiry into his assets and properties. This should tell us whether those in the list are living within their means or are being supported by illicit income!

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com