Unequal treatment

IF THE intelligence reports about public officials tagged by President Digong as protectors of the illegal drug trade were A-1, they should have suffered the same fate as lowly drug pushers who were summarily executed by the police and vigilante groups.

The only difference between these officials and small-time drug pushers is the privilege of rank; they’re still lowlifes for having destroyed millions of lives.

Even in the war against drugs, the people at the higher end of the totem pole are treated differently.

Otherwise why would Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa let Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera, Leyte, a suspected drug lord in Eastern Visayas, sleep at the “White House,” the official residence of the Philippine National Police  chief?

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By the way, if all the judges and mayors implicated in the drug trade were to be given the same privilege granted to Espinosa, they would dirty up the White House.

PNP chief Bato has complained that the room that Espinosa and his family slept in reeked of cigarette smoke the day after.

The smell would be much worse if the “drug” judges and mayors were to sleep at the White House.

Cooped up in a small space, they would have the PNP chief’s official residence smelling foul in one day.

People doomed to die tend to go to the toilet very often.

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Jesus Celeste, whom President Digong identified as one of the mayors involved in the illicit drug traffic, is no longer mayor of Bolinao, Pangasinan.

He is now congressman of the province’s first district.

In a previous column, I had dropped hints about the involvement of Celeste and a close relative in the drug trade―an open secret among Bolinao residents.

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When Director General Bato berated the policemen on the “Duterte drug list” at his office in Camp Crame yesterday (Monday), it was like he was venting the citizenry’s pent-up emotions toward abusive cops.

When Bato swore at the policemen on national TV, it was as if the citizenry was doing the cursing.

Let’s hope Bato also does the same thing to cops who commit other crimes or perform inefficiently.

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The sight of uniformed policemen patrolling busy streets and crowded places is a welcome one for the public.

Ordinary citizens feel assured of their safety when they see uniformed cops in their midst.

Perhaps because they’re doing it for the first time, cops on patrol loaf or just talk among themselves in a corner; and if they walk around, they do so oblivious to their surroundings.

I saw a policewoman―who I found out later was PO1 Grace―at the Greenbelt 5 in Makati City on Sunday, chattering on her cell phone as if she had not a care in the world.

Around 20 minutes after I first saw her, she was still talking and laughing on her cell phone when I passed by her again.

Cops on duty should never be allowed to use their cell phones, especially if they’re patrolling the streets.