Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jul 2016
Source: Philippine Star (Philippines)
Column: Postscript
Copyright: PhilSTAR Daily Inc. 2016
Contact:  http://www.philstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/622
Author: Federico D. Pascual Jr.

DU30 NARCO DRIVE CRASHES LEGAL HUMP

THE BLOODY anti-narcotics drive of President Rodrigo Duterte may have 
hit a legal hump Tuesday after he publicly identified five 
high-ranking police officials, three of them still in active service, 
as being in cahoots with drug lords.

The President now has the burden of proving his accusation since the 
implicated officials are denying the charges. They are lucky they are 
still alive to invoke presumption of innocence  unlike ordinary 
suspected shabu-users gunned down while allegedly shooting it out 
with the police.

Like in a scene out of the TV series "Ang Probinsyano" detailing 
police-narco connections, the President linked to the illicit drugs 
trade retired Deputy Director General

Marcelo Garbo Jr.; retired Chief Supt. Vicente Loot who is now mayor 
of Daanbantayan, Cebu; Director Joel Pagdilao, who until July 4 
headed the National Capital Region Police Office; Chief Supt. Edgardo 
Tinio, former director of the Quezon City Police District; and Chief 
Supt. Bernardo Diaz, former Western Visayas director now assigned at 
Camp Crame. They are all graduates of the Philippine Military Academy.

The President relieved Pagdilao, Tinio and Diaz and ordered them to 
report to PNP chief Police Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa. The 
National Police Commission, meanwhile, has prepared to investigate 
and decide the administrative cases against them.

Calling police-narco collusion treason, the President deviated from 
his prepared speech at the celebration of the Philippine Air Force's 
69th anniversary at the Clark Freeport in Pampanga to identify the 
top PNP officials he was accusing.

With his disclosure widely applauded, the President can be expected 
to press punitive action. If the accused can cope with the shame 
factor that comes with the inevitable trial by publicity, they can 
stand their ground and fight it out all the way to the Supreme Court.

But only one week into the presidency, Mr. Duterte seems to have 
realized that controlling a highly urbanized city like Davao 
(population 1.9 million) is a piece of durian cake compared to 
governing an unruly nation of 101 million scattered over 81 provinces.

He gives us the impression that he is now recalculating his six-month 
deadline to end criminality and government corruption. In his speech 
implicating the five officials, he appeared to be hedging: "I may not 
be able to clean it three to six months, but by six months and one 
day medyo tapos na."

"Medyo tapos na" (almost done) sounds indefinite and unsure, a 
departure from his emphatic "three to six months" campaign promise.

Next time Mr. Duterte talks on the subject, he could be saying "by 
one year and one day...." But many of us who had endured runaway 
criminality all these years may be willing to give him a little more 
time if we see our neighborhood growing safer by the day.

China raises stick, offers carrot to Phl

BEIJING wants Manila not to openly attach too much value to any 
decision that the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is set 
to release on July 12 on a case filed by the Philippines contesting 
China's claim over a vast expanse of the South China Sea.

Speaking through state-controlled newspapers in anticipation of a 
ruling favoring the Philippines, China raises a stick of possible 
military action in nearby seas while offering a carrot of investments 
and joint mineral exploration.

The United States, meanwhile, seems to be unsure of how to deal with 
the iconoclastic mayor who drew 16.6 million votes on a shoestring 
campaign budget to become president.

During his inaugural last June 30, when diplomats lined up to 
individually greet the new President, we observed that China 
ambassador Zhao Jianhua strode to Mr. Duterte with a confident grin 
while US ambassador Philip Goldberg walked to him with a grim visage.

When he was still holding court in Davao, Mr. Duterte was already 
talking with the Chinese envoy about building railroad lines in 
Mindanao and elsewhere. There was no word about what the US wanted to 
offer or what the Philippines needed from it.

When Mr. Duterte popped to Goldberg the test question "Are you with 
us?" he responded with the hoary "Only if you are attacked!" -- 
which, under the Phl-US Mutual Defense Treaty, does not translate to 
instant retaliation since it is subject to the usual congressional rigmarole.

In this context, one may understand why in his first Cabinet meeting 
right after the inauguration, President Duterte said that when the 
arbitral ruling is announced, Manila will neither taunt (China) nor 
flaunt (the ruling).

While the usual US approach to such a potentially incendiary 
development is to circle the wagon with as many allies as possible, a 
pragmatic Mr. Duterte told his Cabinet  including neophyte Foreign 
Secretary Perfecto Yasay  to adjust to the developing situation 
"progressively."

His calibrated approach could be a signal that President Duterte does 
not want to be either cold or confrontational toward China, with the 
world still waiting to see the incoming Commander-in-Chief in the 
White House and the partisan configuration of both houses of the Congress.

The delay in Washington's countermove to Beijing's courtship of 
Manila could be costly. Its deployment of battleships in the South 
China Sea is an old-fashioned step that will have minimal threat 
value to a China that does not want war but is unwilling to give an inch.

China has been a heavily researched subject for the US attempting to 
establish itself as the Asia-Pacific power. The US embassy might want 
to devote more quality time studying the inscrutable Duterte.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom