Reel and real

BencyrusEllorin

HE is a man on a mission. His exploits against criminals has the highest respect from his colleagues.

Fast on the trigger, keen sense against the enemy, this cop on a rampage, strikes fear at the heart of enemies.

One thing though is failing him, he has yet to find justice for his murdered sister-in-law. They had a suspect, they went on trial, but this powerful businessman through some arrangement got off the hook.

But this case lead him to this businessman’s other activities. As days went on, he is starting to suspect this businessman who maintains a wholesome image, even has a son who is a police officer, is into other nefarious business. He starts to suspect he is a druglord.

Then a tragedy befell the family of this businessman. His wife decided to call their marriage quits after she found out that his husband, police officer son and her own father runs a drug business.

The wife and daughter of this businessman decided to leave their house and go somewhere. Along the way, they were ambushed. The daughter died. The perpetrator, a former underworld rival of the businessman’s father-in-law who had just finished his jail sentence.

They hid the death of the daughter from the wife. The businessman who still professes love for his wife, but cannot turn his back on this lucrative business decides to pull a big drug deal sans the participation of his partner father-in-law. He promised to himself that this would be the last one. He was confident he could pull this off easily with  his police officer son and a high ranking police general as protectors.

Then one day, the policeman got a tip, a major drug deal is going happen in a shipyard. The tipster, the father-in-law who was kept out of the loop. When the policeman was on the scene and saw the transaction about to be done, he called for reinforcement through his uncle police general.

Just as the transaction was about to be consummated, a shootout ensued. Businessman was cornered but saw a female TV reporter who was covering the raid stray into the line of fire. She took her hostage.

Standoff.

But no, hero policeman came out of nowhere, businessman cum druglord had no choice but surrender.

He was sent to jail, faced court trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

At the jail where he was to be serving his sentence, using his money and connections up to the highest echelons of power, he was given VIP treatment. He was even served drugs. This gave him an idea. If drugs is a business in the jail, he could start anew and wrest control of the fledging drugs business inside.

Familiar plot? You see this on TV and read this in the news. And yes, the House and Senate probes. Well, not really to the detail, but the general story is becoming predictable.

The scenes I described are actually from the teleseryeAngProbinsyano. It may not be a perfect TV action series. Sometimes scenes are too dragging and there are so many dramas on the sides. The ‘cuteness’ of the lead character CardoDalisay (Coco Martin) is a distraction. It has ran for over a year, and has surely raked in huge revenues for the TV network where the FPJ franchise is carried.

Now, I’ll share a fraction of reality.

A mayor is a suspected drug lord. His son who was at large, he said is the drug lord. The mayor “surrenders” to the chief of the PNP. Stayed at the house of the PNP big boss for protection for a night or two, then he is admitted to a hospital in Cebu, goes back to his smalltown in Leyte to resume his job as mayor.

Meanwhile, slipper-wearing, dirty feet, trishaw riding individuals have been gunned down in public places, their carcasses covered with cardboad-written death sentences. Suspected drug addicts, whose brains are said to have sunk have become braver and bolder. Armed with rusty revolvers they shoot it out with the police force that is in full battle gear against illegal drugs.

Days later, the mayor was arrested and detained in the provincial jail. His son too was arrested in Dubai.

Then suddenly, news of his death.“Nanlaban,” according to police.

When his son was arrested some clueless reporters tried to spin his arrest to please you know who. One of the reports said: Isa nanamangcredible witnessangnahuli.

He is alive, “nanlaban” is not in the vocabulary of the Dubai police.

The spin at home was obvious. Suspected and convicted drug lords are now deemed “credible” by no less than the secretary of the Department of Justice if they pin the present administration’s punching bag – a lady senator.

Serious questions need to be answered in the death of Albuerra, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa. The “nanlaban” defense of police is a tired story. How can a person in detention make a good fight against raiding policemen?

Now they say, they were serving search warrant. Wow, suddenly they are doing operations by the book, but wrongly.

It is hard to comprehend why a search warrant is being served in jail? Other reports say, the policemen were serving an arrest warrant. How can one arrest a prisoner? You don’t kill the dead? Right?

Either way, arresting a prisoner or killing the dead are stupid ideas. The latter disrespect to tradition, the first disrespects and insults common sense.

They say reel life copies real life. But at the rate things are going, this may no longer be a feasible idea. If reel life indeed follows real life, papangittalagaang script and TV networks would not enjoy windfall of revenues and primetime TV would be tragic.