THE dismissal from service of the notorious police officers involved in the ambush of Calbayog City Mayor Ronald Aquino and his security escorts on March 8, 2021, at Laboyao Bridge, Baranggay Lonoy, Calbayog City is a calming development.
That discipline and justice system in the national police organization is alive and working, no doubt is at work yet in progress inside the police force. The impression that PNP is a trustworthy government entity created to protect and to serve must be earned. The PNP need not hurry, for it may take time before it gets easily the impression to public minds.
Kudos to the former Philippine National Police Chief General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar who worked hard to deliver the swift judgment. The fearless, uncompromising, and balanced investigations conducted by the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) in ferreting out the truth amid intimidating internal pressures was critical, and the decisive action of the Discipline Law and Order Division (DLOD) on Directorate for Personnel and Records Management (DPRM) was likewise a significant factor. Under Eleazar’s watch, these internal policing and cleansing systems inside have worked. With PNP now under new leadership, the same display of the organization’s total control over its elements must be visibly clear. Let the dismissals of these bad eggs send a clear signal to the rest of the police rogues and misfits out there, contemplating yet of similar crimes that such adventurism pays, and it pays terrible.
“Kilbayog” for Calbayog
It may take quite some time of sustained peace and absence of killings before the city to recover the honor of its name now associated with the spate of killings, recent of which was a journo who was shot dead in the head while watching TV at his home. So yes, Calbayog for quite a time now has been nicknamed “Kilbayog” because of the unrestrained killings taking place in the city. The city police office of Calbayog City has a lot of proving to do that its presence in the city is to serve and protect and that it is more than capable of delivering that service. But with the killing of a journo last week, it seemed though that the PNP organization in “Kilbayog,” este, Calbayog seemed miserably failing to establish that level of control just yet.
Is Calbayog City under the spell that its notorious moniker “Kilbayog” rather fits its character?