Politicizing the police

Nora Soriño .

ILIGAN City — My good friend Dee, who is still a kid but whose interests include  history, current events and politics, recited this to me the other day: “War is politics with so much bloodshed while politics is war without bloodshed.”

My agreement was only 95 percent because there are still bloodshed in politics, although limited.

So, when the city government here led by Mayor Celso Regencia pulled out the patrol cars that the police have been using for the reason that their favored police chief Senior Supt Manuel Sukarno Alvarez was replaced, there was already “war without the bloodshed.”

Alvarez is said to be former police chief Senior Supt. Leony Roy Ga’s classmate, and Ga was Regencia’s favored police chief. Ga then retired and he is now preparing in his bid for the congressional post of the city’s lone district opposite Congressman Frederick Siao, the incumbent.

Alvarez was replaced by Senior Supt. Rene Solidarios. Suddenly.

The city officials did not like it, hence, their pa-drama effect of pulling out the patrol cars because they were not consulted on the matter, they being the city officials and they should know better in the matter of policing the city.

Was Alvarez not good for the city? Did the city under him experience peace especially during the one-month fiesta season in September when other places suffered peace disturbances?

“What will the police use in case of emergency? Could they run fast enough?”

Maybe, it helped Ga’s politics and the city’s officials, too — well, most of them — that his tarp is being hung in various police stations with the message of thanks for Ga to have served well the city and for being the “Most Outstanding Police Commissioned Officer of 2017.”

I suppose that did not sit well with Siao or his supporters. Some even went to the extent of opposing that tarp with Ga’s good face on it. “He’s no longer connected with the police. So, why is his face there?” or something like that was the statement of one ka-BFF of Siao.

This is the strategy of Alvarez, they suspected by allowing that damn tarp to be hung. So, one day, Alvarez was replaced!

Siao could be behind the sudden replacement, the city officials chorused.  To note, Ga runs for congressman opposite Siao, the incumbent.

Through all these, Siao did not say anything. But his spokespersons and/or  die hard supporters Norberto “Boy” Altres, Boy Decena, June Enriquez, etc., did by getting on a demolition mode.

Not to be outdone, the mayor’s spokespersons were, I mean are, in a demolition mode, too — Joe Pantoja, June Lino Bacus, Ka Pops Libria, among others.

All these are to the dismay of the residents because when a police matter is politicized, then the police force is politicized!

Let’s just wait for the latest development. As in, abangan.