There is a saying: “If you spit at the heavens, the same spittle will come raining down your face.”
President Rodrigo Duterte does not seem to know this. Digong said most recently the Catholic church is full of sh—t coming right after he described members of the clergy as “hypocrites.” Yet, he went the extra mile to appease the Vatican with a personal letter delivered by his errand boys to Pope Francis. The letter’s intent was full of (no, epithets this time) his reaffirmation of love and respect for the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
For a while there, I thought the man was not beyond redemption. But Duterte, it is now clear as the light of day, is incorrigible. The letter to Pope Francis from all indications was conciliatory after Duterte cursed His Holiness for causing him to be stuck in traffic during the papal visit in January 2015. Not that Digong feared the wrath of God might smite him with a thunderbolt from the sky. He must have thought of the 16-million Filipinos in this dominantly Catholic country who voted him into office.
But no, the man is incorrigible even after Pope Francis blessed the Philippines and its president. Soon after his envoys Perfecto Yasay and Jesus Dureza left the Vatican, Digong went back to his virulent attack on the Church.
Outspoken actress Agot Isidro once called Rodrigo Duterte as a psychopath who needs professional help. Duterte might have confirmed Agot’s description of the him when he himself said he was “gago” like US President Donald Trump. Now, the Tagalog word “gago” in street lingo does not necessarily mean a man is stupid. It is in this case straight out of Digong’s neighborhood toughie talk that he does outrageous things for effect.
At the Senate public order committee hearing chaired by Senator Panfilo Lacson, it is turning out that despite an available list of rouge cops there was no earnest effort to cleanse their own ranks by Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa and other ranking PNP officials who had direct supervision of their men. A lack of coordination between the PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation also became evident in the horrific Jee Ick Joo case.
Senators Grace Poe, Bam Aquino and Leila de Lima helped Lacson ferret out the inconsistencies and lame defense of those linked to the kidnap-killing of the Korean businessman who was killed right inside PNP headquarters in Camp Crame. This is the second brazen crime committed by the police in recent months. The other one was the gun slaying of detained drug suspect Mayor Roland Espinosa right inside his detention cell in Leyte. Why kill a man who’s already in detention and in government custody if not to silence him from implicating police and other public officials in the narcotics trade? The case against the policemen involved in the Espinosa killing is still in the preliminary investigation stage.
Jee was abducted and arrested by members of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group allegedly on suspicion of drug-trafficking. He was brought to Camp Crame where he was strangled. His body was brought to a mortuary in Caloocan City where it was cremated. His ashes were flushed down the toilet to get rid of the evidence—what is known in legal term as corpus delicti.
The Senate hearing on police involvement in criminal activities is a continuing unraveling of their involvement in murder, kidnapping for ransom, carnapping, robbery and rape. Three other cases of kidnapping for ransom of Koreans were also revealed but did not receive the same media attention after the victims paid ransom and were released.
PNP chief Dela Rosa told the Senate hearing he cannot be held responsible for the Jee Ick Joo killing as he only assumed his post six months ago on the assumption of President Duterte on June 30. But that’s no excuse . The PNP general should have reviewed the cases of scalawag cops as soon as he assumed the PNP post. If he did, perhaps the Jee case might not have happened.
Erring cops, records would show, are merely suspended or transferred to another police unit where continue their nefarious ways. This would appear to answer the senators’ concern as to why these crooked cops have no fear of punishment from their superiors. They have been getting away with it for so long that recidivism has become the norm for these rogue cops.
An examination of suspect Ricky Sta. Isabel shows he has several pieces of property and P70 million in his bank accounts. This runs counter to the adage “crime does not pay.” On the contrary, it seems to pay off if one is armed with a police uniform, a gun and badge as PO2 Sta. Isabel is.