Our insensitive President
The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) has helped secure the temporary release of 40 people who were arrested and charged with illegal possession of ammunition after bullets were allegedly found in their luggage at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Of those charged, 20 were seamen on their way to their respective destinations overseas.
The PAO is headed by the feisty Persida Acosta.
In arguing either for their temporary release or the dismissal of the cases against them, Acosta said the accused had no intention of harming others if it were true that the bullets found in their possession were not planted.
She puts to shame some government prosecutors in Pasay City who could have dismissed the cases outright had they used their common sense.
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Bookish Pasay City prosecutors invoked the law against illegal possession of ammo, saying that being caught with a single bullet carries the same penalty as carrying 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
The law, however, doesn’t take into account the intent of the accused. They were probably carrying a bullet believing that it would protect them from misfortune or a hex.
Some of those charged were caught with a bullet shell, the gunpowder had been removed and thus, it could no longer be fired.
In the case of Lane Michael White who was arrested and detained after a bullet was supposedly found in his luggage, didn’t it occur to the inquest prosecutor that he had just arrived from the United States and was flying to Coron, Palawan province to do missionary work for his church?
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President Noynoy has been criticized for saying the bullet-planting incidents at the airport named after his father have been sensationalized.
The President is so insensitive to other people’s feelings or problems he seems to be living in his own world.
When his father, Sen. Ninoy Aquino, was languishing in a military jail, the young Noynoy was reportedly gallivanting with his classmates and friends.
If he was nonchalant about his father’s predicament, do you expect him to show concern for people who are neither his relatives nor friends?
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Oscar Gali Jr., 28, who has a mental problem, was entrusted to a security guard at Pacific Terraces village in Imus, Cavite province by a Protestant pastor after learning that he lived in the village.
According to his relatives, Gali had become a recluse and refused to talk to anyone after he was in shock as a result of being a holdup victim twice.
The village guard, William Hernandez, didn’t recognize Gali and gave him to barangay officials in Carsadang Bago.
Thinking Gali was a thief, barangay officials called the police.
SPO1 Danilo Paredes, commander of Police Community Precinct 4, PO3 Roberto dela Cruz, PO1 Jeffrey Amada, and civilians Jaypee Paredes and Jomar Onate fetched Gali from the Carsadang Bago barangay hall.
A week later, Gali was found dead in a lonely spot in Barangay Toclong, Kawit town.
Who do you think executed Gali, whose only crime was being a person with a mental disability?
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