Bold and brazen
What is happening in Cebu right now could be a waterloo for the brazen propaganda that has characterized the administration’s violent campaign against illegal drugs.
This might be a stretch, but the image of top police officials fumbling for the right tale to tell a skeptical public reminds me of the day the great Emperor Napoleon met his crushing defeat by allied forces in Waterloo, Belgium. The town’s name later evolved into a common word which means “defeat in the hands of someone who is too strong” or “a problem that is too difficult to overcome.”
That problem for police officials in Cebu is the strong public clamor for an end to the extrajudicial killings and for a swift resolution to these killings.
In this nationwide war against illegal drugs, the police are getting used to telling their story their way, every so often comforted by assurances of presidential protection and support.
In Cebu, their stance has been the same. The brazen killings are purportedly drug-related, or that some drug syndicates are hitting back against authorities or are killing each other. But when pressed for more answers by a vigilant media here, police officials seem to fumble at every turn.
This has been true in at least two recent cases; the alleged ambush try on Tejero Councilman Jessielou Cadungog in Cebu City, and the killing of PDEA agent Von Rian Tecson in Carcar City.
In Tecson’s case, more questions are coming out that need to be answered by investigators. But the more Police Regional Office-7 Director Debold Sinas tried to explain to the public about the timing of Tecson’s killing with that of the fatal wounding of a policeman, the more puzzled the public have become and belittled they felt.
Prior to the entry of new police officials in Cebu, the Cebu City Police Office was named Best Performing Drug Enforcement Unit in the country. The city police, then led by Senior Superintendent Joel Doria, recorded 4,041 operations, 6,451 arrests, and 30,472 grams of shabu seized worth a total of P350 million.
True, there were numerous drug-related killings in Cebu already between 2016 and 2017, but not so brazen and not so suspiciously involving policemen as the recent killings, with police officials bizarrely eager to close the gaps in an incident faster than investigators can gather solid facts about it.
By now, police officials should have realized that Cebu is not like any other terrain they have set foot on before. For one, we have a vigilant and vibrant media that will not hesitate to ask the hard questions.
For another, Cebu, despite being the second most important metropolis in the country, is still a relatively small urbanized community huddled in an elongated but narrow island. It is still an “everybody knows everybody” kind of place and is not exactly an ideal ground for people to commit high-profile crimes then escape to a remote place without a leaving a dozen trails.
Another thing, Cebu has a high concentration of middle-class and lower middle-class population living in the progressive urban and suburban areas, with wide access to news media and information technology.
What I am saying is that you must be so bold and brazen (no pun intended) to spin such tales explaining the deadly consequences of a chilling and unsophisticated drug war, and still expect to look good and be trusted by the public you have sworn to serve and protect.
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