Time didn’t include Marawi in its report

I just got my Nov. 6 issue of Time Magazine with a front page cover of a ruined city of Raqqa and the story entitled, “The Caliphate Falls: But ISIS fights on.” Great reporting Time Magazine except that they didn’t feature what happened in Marawi City where the Maute terrorist group in the name of ISIS tried to establish a Caliphate in Southeast Asia in this Southern Philippine city since May 23^rd. But by Oct.22^nd, the fighting was all over except for a few stragglers.

In short, the Caliphate they tried to establish in Marawi also fell and nearly a thousand Maute terrorists died in trying to fight a lost cause against a determined Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which before the attack in Marawi didn’t have any experience in fighting an urban warfare against terrorists who were very well armed and had months to prepare for a long drawn battle with the military. But in the end, despite the killing of a 160 plus soldiers, the only thing that the Maute terrorists succeeded in doing in the five-month siege was to turn Marawi City into rubble… a signature of any city captured by the ISIS.

This is the problem with international magazines whose reporters are quick to chastise Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte on human rights issues, but when the Philippine military wins and destroys the ISIS attempt to establish a caliphate in the Philippines, the very same ISIS fighting in the Middle East, it is not featured in their news. Be fair in your reporting Time Magazine!

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I’m glad that last Tuesday the Philippine STAR came up with an editorial entitled “Mocking the Law” detailing how 19 years ago, Yu Yuk Lai, a Taiwanese woman and her nephew was convicted of drug trafficking in Sept. 2001 in an era when illegal drugs were not yet considered a national menace. What the public did not know until this editorial was published was this case apparently caused the sacking of two judges by the Supreme Court obviously for corruption. Allow me to reprint an excerpt of that editorial.

“On trial for a non-bailable offense, Yu was allowed by then Manila Regional Trial Court judge Manuel Muro to be confined in a private hospital. Yu, however, was caught spending the health furlough in a casino and was rearrested. The Supreme Court later sacked Muro from the service. Although the offense covered three kilos of shabu, RTC Judge Teresa Soriaso spared Yu and Sy from death and instead sentenced the two to life in prison. Later, the SC also fired from the service Court of Appeals justice Demetrio Demetria for intervening in the case.”

I was writing an article questioning why there is no Senate or Congressional investigation that should have been called because of this very embarrassing news report. But last Tuesday’s editorial asked those questions for me, which by now should trigger a full-blown Senate investigation. Let me continue with what the STAR editorial said.

“Yesterday before dawn, members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency found Yu, now 72, in her cell at the women’s correctional. But the PDEA reported seizing nearly P4.5 million worth of shabu packed in plastic, jars and 27 panty liners from Yu’s cell, gaily painted in lucky red and pink. 

Yu wasn’t alone in her operations. The PDEA also raided the condominium unit of her daughter Diane Uy in San Miguel, Manila. PDEA officials said they seized P10 million worth of shabu from the apartment, which is within spitting distance of Malacañang.

PDEA agents said Uy tried to bribe them with P5 million. Uy denied this, but it seems her mother has been getting away with bribes for a long time now. How else could Yu have continued her drug trade under the noses of correctional officials and personnel? And why does her daughter have a member of the elite police Special Action Force, PO3 Walter Vidad, serving as bodyguard?”

Here we are elated by how the military and the police finally won the fight against Maute terrorists in Marawi City… but behind our backs, there’s that news report that a SAF officer who doubles as a bodyguard for a drug queen and supposedly a member of the Presidential Security Command (PSG) was also involved. Apparently that was an erroneous report. A correction report from the Inquirer that earlier published this story identified Police Officer 3 Walter Vidad as coming from the Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG) of the PNP and not the Presidential Security Group or the Special Action Force (SAF). Thank God for that!

Indeed this is a total mockery of our laws… which happened during the watch of then Department of Justice (SOJ) Secretary, now Senator Leila de Lima and apparently it continues up to this day. So what does DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aquirre have to say about this issue? Abangan!

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