It doesn’t make sense

President Digong’s “matrix,” which supposedly shows government officials linked to the illegal drug trade, would have been believable were it not for the inclusion of former Pangasinan governor and now Rep. Amado Espino Jr.

It’s impossible for Espino to get involved in the distribution of narcotics because he hates crime and drugs.

That is, as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve known Espino for many years, since he was a commander of the Angeles City Metropolitan District Command (Metrodiscom) in the early 1990s.

He was a nemesis of criminals back then, and I suppose he hasn’t changed his stand on crime over the years.

Yes, I’ve heard reports that he allegedly accepted jueteng money, but then almost all local and police officials do.

Accepting money from jueteng is a matter of course for most officials in areas where the numbers racket is prevalent; if they won’t accept it, somebody else will.

But Espino getting involved in the drug trade?

Why would a multiawarded officer of the defunct Philippine Constabulary—he survived an ambush by the communist New People’s Army when he was a lieutenant and was credited with the capture of some NPA leaders and big-time criminals—destroy all his past achievements by soiling his hands with drugs?

It doesn’t make any sense.

***

I can believe the involvement of former Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan and former Corrections Director Franklin Bucayu as far as tolerating the existence of drug syndicates inside the national penitentiary is concerned.

Under Baraan and Bucayu’s watch, the NBP became a source of  drugs—cocaine, “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and ecstasy, a sex-enhancing and mind-distorting drug—while convicted drug lords freely ran their syndicates from inside prison.

Early this week, I interviewed a former drug addict, a wisp of a girl, who said she and her boyfriend bought drugs inside New Bilibid Prison (NBP) during Bucayu’s time as Bureau of Corrections director.

Baraan was then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s favorite underling, the reason he was given the juicy post of supervising the NBP and other state prisons in the country.

***

After I wrote about the National Museum’s director Jeremy Barns and his assistant director, Ana Labrador, I received another story about another alleged scam at the government-run museum.

The resigned (as of June 28, 2016) chair the National Museum Board of Trustees (NMBOT), Ramon del Rosario Jr., aka Boy Blue, allegedly put up a foundation called Philippine National Museum Foundation Inc. (PNMFI).

The board authorized the PNMFI to collect funds for the benefit of the museum.

Up to now, the funds collected from major donors have allegedly not been submitted to the board.

Boy Blue’s chairmanship of the NMBOT and PNMFI clearly presents a conflict of interest.