Final option for criminal cops
Malacañang has expressed concern over the reported kidnapping of a South Korean businessman, Jee Ick-joo, 53, by a member of the police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG).
The Palace has cause for concern because despite President Digong’s assumption to office, there are still so many policemen who use their authority for criminal ends.
The antinarcotics cop was identified through a security camera as one of the persons who abducted Jee.
The getaway car used by the kidnappers is registered in the name of the cop’s wife.
Despite payment of ransom, Jee has not been released by his kidnappers.
Why is there no report on whether the antinarcotics cop concerned is being investigated? Why is he not being identified by Camp Crame?
Another kidnapping case where policemen were involved took place in August last year.
A Chinese-Filipino businessman was abducted at his warehouse in Valenzuela City by cops, two of whom were identified as SPO4 Medardo Velasco and SPO2 Luisito Hipolito, of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Up to now, the kidnapping case is pending in the Department of Justice.
The victim has been receiving threats to make him withdraw the case.
If the Duterte administration is harsh on drug lords, pushers and dealers, it should also be unforgiving to law enforcers who are criminals.
The best way to deal with scalawag policemen is to treat them like drug personalities.
But then, the Philippine National Police might be decimated if the final option were put into effect.
Fedelina Orfinanada, 47, an insurance agent, and her daughter went last-minute shopping at the newly opened Unitop Mall in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, on Dec. 24.
As Fedelina was busy looking for items to buy, her daughter got a duster or house dress, asked her to pay for it and draped it over her shoulder.
She paid for all the items she got from the store but forgot about the duster hanging over her shoulder.
As Fedelina, who plays bit roles on TV, was going out of the store, the theft alarm went off.
Stopped by the guards, Fedelina said that she probably forgot to pay for an item inside the store-provided shopping bag.
The duster, with the anti-theft tag still attached to it, had set off the alarm.
Mall security guards Rolly Mendoza, Felipe Moreno, Roderick Mangaya and Marissa Delgado of the Command Force Security Agency went to work: They berated her in front of other shoppers and accused her of being a thief.
They didn’t listen to Fedelina’s explanation that she just forgot to pay for the duster.
Even the store cashier, who should have noticed the duster, agreed with the guards that she tried to steal the duster which cost P75.
The store made her pay P750 or 10 times the price for the item.
What the store management and the guards should have done was to invite her to their office, talk with her and not insult and humiliate her in public.
Fedelina didn’t enjoy her clan’s Christmas reunion that night.
Fedelina was crying as she narrated her experience to me at my “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo” radio show on Jan. 6, two weeks after the incident.
“I wanted to melt away like salt. People who were passing by stared at me like I was a criminal,” she said.
Why is Judge Girlie Borrel-Yu of the Ormoc City Regional Trial Court taking so long to resolve a motion for reconsideration on a civil case pending since 2012?
The motion was filed in August 2012 and submitted for resolution as of Oct. 5, 2012.
Perhaps Court Administrator Midas Marquez of the Supreme Court should ask the good judge.
