Rosebud’s testimony was a damning blow

The testimony of Chinese witness Mary Ong, alias "Rosebud", was the most credible attack presented thus far against Senator and ex-PNP Chief Panfilo Lacson. Even if PNP Chief Supt. (General) Reynaldo Acop asserts that "Rosebud" was a double agent for a Chinese drug-trafficking Triad infiltrated into the Philippine National Police in order to "destroy" Ping Lacson and other top-drawer police officers, including her former lover, PNP Supt. John Campos, the only conclusion the inquiring Senators and public can draw is that "if there’s smoke, there must be fire."

What "Rosebud" exposed is that "Oplan Athena" (who picks those clever names, incidentally?) didn’t turn out to be a plan to penetrate a Hong Kong Triad or secret society’s drug operations but instead became a scheme to acquire huge amounts of shabu a.k.a. methamphetamine hydrochloride for resale to Philippine druglords and other clients. She charged that in 1998, Camp Crame, the PNP headquarters, instead of being a center for the anti-narcotics drive was the biggest dispenser of drugs "imported" from the criminal Triads.

These are serious accusations and, if Lacson, Acop, and other high-ranking police officers can really be established as being on top of this disgusting racket, their goose is cooked. But, once more, we’ll have to say: Let’s see. The evidence submitted by Ong looks convincing. The test of scrutiny and due diligence must be applied to what "Rosebud" has presented. And, at the risk of sounding a nag, this proof must stand up in court.

What short-cut can the "just" persons in our society propose to nail Lacson, grab him, and hang him high? Vigilante action? Citizens’ arrest? Summary "execution"? Even the crusading knight, Col. Victor Corpus, doesn’t have the authority to do so. All his accusations and those of his witnesses have only thus far been aired in media by way of newspaper interviews and the "teledrama" series aired on TV and print media-covered Senate hearings.

In this connection, if the courts and our justice system, while sometimes flawed, can’t be trusted, what can be trusted? "People Power"? NGO’s? The bishops, priests and nuns? Those illuminated by the Holy Spirit? Even the Senate has been all but discredited. Yet, we’re still a Republic, and, hopefully, a democracy, not a Theocracy, or a society run by mob rule.

Just consider Death Row. There are convicts awaiting execution there who’ll probably die of old age. This is because even those sentenced to death for heinous crimes have the right to exhaust all possible appeals to higher courts made available under the law.

There are, as well, hundreds perhaps even thousands of innocent and bewildered individuals who are behind bars because they were railroaded into prison by influential enemies, or by mistake. This is why the Rule of Law must be strengthened and improved, not discarded simply because it, sometimes, does not come up to expectations.

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One of our former helpers tells of a cousin down in Bicol who was riding home from work aboard an open truck. At a police checkpoint, one of the men perched on the truck carelessly threw a lighted cigarette to the ground, but it struck one of the policemen in the chest instead. The cop angrily "held" the vehicle and demanded that the sonafabitch who had hurdled the cigarette at him come down and confess. He vowed that the truck and its occupants would be kept there, all night if necessary, until the culprit was identified. Since most of these riding the vehicle happened to be barkada, or close friends, they pointed at the surprised and terrified "hitchhiker" in their midst as the offending cigarette-thrower. The young man was dragged off the truck by the police pushed around, then charged with illegal possession of firearm" although he didn’t have any kind of weapon on his person. According to the girl who narrated the sad story, to her knowledge her hapless cousin is still in jail. All owing to a carelessly (or deliberately?) thrown cigarette – and an abusive, vengeful cop.

This, I’m informed, happens often in the provinces. Arrogant and stupid policemen, as well as goons of political warlords, provincial jail guards, drunken soldiers, and anybody else with some sort of uniform or badge swagger around like petty tyrants.

Camp Crame as a shabu depot and dispenser of drugs? But how can an entire organization be damned in this way? Many people are, of course, ready to believe the worst of our police. I confess I'm one of them. This matter is still subject to proof. Yet, Col. Corpus declares he has more witnesses to produce. Let them give us more substantial evidence. For instance, it still must be established that the racket operated with the knowledge and under the direct supervision of accused "Drug Czar" Ping Lacson.

He might have been too busy recovering "stolen" cars from policemen, or ordering them to do exercises, stop over-eating, and trim their waistlines. I see that, post-Lacson, our cops from generals on down, have lost the Battle of the Bulge. And recently, when told to go to the firing range, according to a news report, they couldn’t even hit the target. Some of them hadn’t even learned to fire their own guns because bullets were too "expensive" to permit them to practice! Sanamagan. Do we have drug-pushers in uniform, or Keystone Cops, or Gourmet and Beer-Swilling patrolmen – or all of the above?

As I’ve long been saying in this corner, when you call a cop, you’re still not sure whether you’ll be rescued – or victimized.

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The cold-blooded killing of a veteran Irish missionary, Father Rufus Halley, along the Narciso Ramos highway in Barangay, Diamaro, Malabang (Lanao del Sur), is just another incident that highlights the state of lawlessness in Mindanao. The chief suspect, named by fellow Muslims at that, is the son of a former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander, Atto Sumagayan Daing, while the five other bandits remain unidentified.

Father Halley, a Columban missionary who had served at Our Lady of Peace parish church in Malabang for 20 years, was "much loved", Muslims and Christians living in the area say. This didn’t stop the six bandits from riddling him with bullets (four when he was already down) in what was described as a botched kidnapping attempt. The slain priest was probably less the victim of religious hatred than a convenient mark for bandits who – thanks to the "profits" racked up by the Abu Sayyaf’s Commander Robot in the past, and Abu Sabaya in the more recent "Dos Palmas" caper – have gotten the impression that "white" hostages fetch a higher price.

The continuing rampage by well-armed Moro bandits and rebels can be traced, for the most part, to a strange "policy" by the military and PNP in Mindanao. While Christians can be arrested for illegal possession of firearms, Muslims are permitted to walk around weighed down by heavy artillery, from automatic weapons like M-16s, to every make of handgun. Why are they not being disarmed? The authorities in that southern archipelago shrug helplessly and bleat that Moros can’t be deprived of their firearms because, salamabit, "it’s a cultural thing." The flimsy argument is that a Moro would feel naked without his gun.

What about the time when the Moros had absolutely no firearms at all in Mindanao? Would they have felt "naked" in those days, the Spanish and American eras, without their kris or kampilans? Will such a bloody farce ever end?

"Culture" is no excuse for any minority to remain armed to the teeth, making it convenient for bandits or hotheads in their midst to commit murder, and indulge in kidnapping, torture and rape. It can be stupidly argued that Moro "pirates" have been raiding towns as far north as Ilocos Sur during the Spanish centuries, so it’s just an old-fashioned "custom."

Disarm everybody, of whatever religion or stripe! Only then will we have peace, and law and order, in our Wild Frontier of Mindanao.