Clumsy blueprint for murder

Nine out of 10 barangays (villages) in the country have a drug problem, according to a recent report.

All places in the country, except perhaps Davao City, are grappling with this menace.

The drug problem has led to a very high crime rate as most users resort to theft, robbery or homicide to support their vice.

Many heinous crimes like rape and murder are committed by people high on drugs.

Adding to the problem are policemen who sell illegal drugs they confiscate from pushers or traffickers.

Many policemen, out for a fast buck, “plant” drugs on known drug users or pushers and even innocent civilians to shake them down.

Prisons and jails throughout the country are home to leaders of different drug syndicates who run their operations from the safety of prison walls. These are drug lords serving time for drug trafficking.

Of course, some prison or jail officials are in cahoots with the detained drug lords.

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The drug problem has become gigantic, thus calling for a drastic solution.

The country needs a leader with an iron hand, so very much unlike President Noynoy who is perceived to be a weakling.

We need a leader like Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte who was able to make the city practically drug and crime-free.

If we, the citizenry, vote for another weakling like P-Noynoy or a leader who will still undergo on-the-job training while running the country, the drug problem will become unsolvable. We will become another Colombia.

Colombia is a country in South America where authorities fear the drug syndicates instead of the other around.

In Colombia, the killing of police officials, prosecutors or judges who incur the ire of some drug lords is an ordinary occurrence.

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I wonder if Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales is able to sleep at night knowing full well she has wrongly prosecuted 10 Navy officers and enlisted men who are accused in the death of Ensign Philip Pestaño.

Pestaño was found dead with a bullet wound in his head inside his cabin on the vessel BRP Bacolod City on Sept. 27, 1995.

All the investigating agencies—National Bureau of Investigation, the then Western Police District, now the Manila Police District, and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group—ruled that Pestaño killed himself.

Even a private forensics expert, Dr. Raquel Fortun, who was hired by the Pestaño family to investigate, also said the young officer committed suicide.

Ombudsman Morales, setting aside the decision of her predecessor, Merceditas Gutierrez, that Pestaño took his own life, ruled that the young officer’s comrades on BRP Bacolod conspired to kill him.

If the accused conspired to murder their young comrade, they would have shot him and thrown him overboard where the sharks would have feasted on him.

Pestaño would then have been declared as missing.

In law, if there is no body, there is no crime.

Needless to say, the accused are officers of above-average intelligence and their case would have made an intelligent—instead of a clumsy—blueprint for murder.