By Alex P. Vidal
“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”— Elon Musk
FROM top to bottom, it’s a total sweep.
If the basis for the relief of all cops in the Iloilo City Police Station 5 (ICPS5) in Mandurriao and the Iloilo City Police Office-City Drug Enforcement Unit (ICPO-CDEU) was the arrest of 32 drug personalities in Brgy. Bakhaw, Mandurriao on January 25, the decision of Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) director, Brigadier General Leo Francisco, was commendable.
According to a report by Daily Guardian’s Jennifer P. Rendon, “Francisco did not mince words that he was not satisfied with their performance.”
In other words, B/General Francisco wasn’t happy with the news about the raid and arrest of the 32; ergo, he wanted to cut and cut clean.
The PRO-6 chief was referring to the ICPS5 led by Major Rey Sumagaysay with 91 personnel and CDEU led by Inspector Marlon Perez with around 15 personnel, according to Rendon’s report.
Also, Iloilo City Police Office chief, Colonel Leo Batiles, due to retire on March 2023, according to reports, has been been replaced
Colonel Joeresthy Coronica.
If they think they didn’t live up to the expectations of B/General Franciso, the relieved PNP officers will never complain; they can’t harbor any hard feelings to the region’s top police boss.
Even if they “loved” their old assignments, they are professionals who would obey orders rather than resent them.
For this, B/General Francisco will definitely go down in history as one of the most decisive, no-nonsense and very professional regional directors in Western Visayas.
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But wait a minute. Even if all those PNP officers have been relieved, there is still no assurance that cases of illegal drugs will end or at least decline in the metropolis.
The newly installed ICPO-CDEU and ICPS5, as well as the ICPS2,3,4 in Jaro, La Paz, Arevalo, Molo, will have to brace themselves for a possible revamp if more drug personalities will fall in the next few months while B/General Francisco is still the PRO-6 boss.
Let’s face it. Since the brutal deaths of Iloilo’s suspected top drug lord, Melvin “Dragon” Odicta in 2016, and Brgy. Bakhaw’s Robinhood, Richard “Buang” Prevendido in 2017, illegal drugs trade didn’t actually disappear in Iloilo City.
It’s impossible for Dragon’s illegal drugs empire to collapse completely after he and his wife, Merriam, were killed by suspected police mercenaries in Caticlan, Aklan while returning from an abrupt trip in Manila where they supposedly “revealed” their police and political protectors to then DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno.
It’s unbelievable that Buang’s illegal drugs “consortiums” in Brgy. Bakhaw would be rapidly shattered after he was gunned down in a safe house in Iloilo City on September 1, 2017.
The recent arrest of the 32 in Brgy. Bakhaw where closed to P1-million worth of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) have been seized will illustrate how the tentacles of illegal drugs have escalated with a vengeance.
As long as the business of illegal drugs has not been totally eradicated, there is a danger that more sweeping police revamps would unfold in the future if more drug personalities fell in future police operations and the “clean sweep” policy was upheld even if B/General Francisco has been transferred to other assignments or has retired.
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WE have been waiting for former Senator Franklin Drilon to at least “get mad” now that his pet project (he is a legislator, but he was instrumental in its funding), the P680-million Iloilo flyover in Ungka, Iloilo, will soon be subjected to a formal House investigation after an official resolution has been filed in congress by Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Manuel, GABRIELA Partylist Rep. Arlene Brosas, and ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro.
Drilon has all the reason to get mad because the project was supposed to be his legacy now that he has “retired” from politics.
So many ugly speculations, accusations, suspicions, and realities backed by factual evidence have surfaced to support and confirm fears that so many people made money out of that doomed project.
This alone will give Drilon enough reason to blow his top—just in case he is innocent.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)
