Incoming Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon will be hard put giving orders to his subordinate, incoming Customs intelligence chief, Juancho Sabban.
Faeldon was a Marine captain when he was discharged from the service after being granted amnesty by the Aquino government for taking part in the so-called Oakwood Mutiny in 2003. Sabban retired with honor from the Marines with the rank of lieutenant general in 2014.
Faeldon entered the military as a third class trainee in 1989 while Sabban graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1978.
There was a very wide gap in rank—as well as in behavior—between Faeldon and Sabban while both were in the service.
Now the tables have been turned.
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A female employee of the Bureau of Customs who has been thrown into the “freezer” at the Department of Finance along with other corrupt coworkers is applying for a key position in the bureau.
You know what she told the search committee of the incoming Digong administration?
She could be an asset to Mano (elder brother) Digong because she would act as a stool pigeon.
A stool pigeon is a criminal who gives the police information about other criminals.
That’s what she did in years past when she regularly reported to the finance secretary—not Cesar Purisima—the activities of fellow customs officials and personnel while keeping mum on her own shenanigans.
She was more corrupt than those she told on.
In the end, she and the finance secretary became lovers.
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In the last few days, many suspected drug dealers and pushers have been killed by the police in what appeared to be “salvagings” or extrajudicial executions.
Why are these killings happening just now when the police could have engaged the suspects in “shootouts” in the past?
The answer is so obvious: Most of the drug peddlers were killed by their policemen-protectors.
Remember, dead men tell no tales.
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The modus operandi of some cops out to make a fast buck is to plant a sachet of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) on a hapless citizen.
The poor fellow, faced with a long jail term, is forced to negotiate with the “farmer.”
There is a law which imposes the death penalty on policemen or other law enforcers who frame innocent citizens.
The death penalty may have been abolished but the incoming Duterte administration wants to reimpose it.
If the death penalty is restored, drug-planting cops are now in the same category as notorious drug pushers and drug lords.
If the incoming Digong administration is harsh on drug pushers and drug lords, drug-planting cops should get the same treatment.