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BY HERBERT VEGO
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WHAT’S President Rodrigo Duterte trying to prove in signing Special Order 8834 assigning Police Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido to Iloilo City? The conflicting statements he has said do not mesh, as if coming from two different personas. One day he said, “Iloilo was the hotbed of drugs… pero ngayon medyo wala na.”
A few days later, he incoherently warned Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, “Now, while nothing is happening, you might want to end your drug connections. Just be a drug lord. You’ll earn billions. But in exchange, you’ll die. Let’s not kid around.”
The only thing the President has against the mayor is his “Duterte’s List” that contains names of politicians, military and police officials allegedly engaged in the illegal drug trade. If it were “Schidler’s List,” it would have been life-saving. It’s the movie where Oskar Schindler, a German businessman, saves the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factory.
In contrast, two mayors in Duterte’s list have died under circumstances that are now too familiar to be retold. Espenido was police director of Albuera, Leyte when Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was gunned down in his jail cell by a composite police team on Nov. 5, 2016; and was also police director of Ozamiz City when his own team raided the house of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, killing him and 15 others on July 30, 2017.
In a speech at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City on Aug. 28 commemorating National Heroes Day, Duterte segued, “Espenido, where are you? You asked for the assignment in Leyte. You asked for another assignment in Ozamiz. Now, you want to be assigned to Iloilo because Mabilog has been identified as a protector-mayor. Will he remain alive?”
Whatever subliminal message it must have conveyed down the mayor’s spine could not be overestimated.
Espenido, on the other hand, was not surprised, having already told TV host Karen Davila that he would welcome reassignment from Ozamiz to Iloilo City.
Mabilog’s supporters and detractors alike have been posting an identical question on Facebook: “If he is no drug lord or protector, why should he be afraid of Prevendido?” That question, no doubt, stems from the premise that government is not capable of “neutralizing” whom the “god” wishes to destroy – as it did to Espinosa and Parojinog.
Unlike Espinosa and Parojinog, however, Mabilog has never been directly linked to illegal drug dealing. True, he has been caught on camera in the company of a drug lord, but so has many other politicians, including the President who was visited in office by alleged drug lord Peter Lim on July 17, 2016.
It would have been more convincing had Duterte mentioned “Prevendido” as reason for Espenido’s reassignment. Richard Prevendido, the most wanted drug lord in Western Visayas since Duterte assumed the presidency, has eluded arrest. But then, that would cast an “incompetent” shadow of the past and present police leadership.
Some political kibitzers believe that “politics” looms as the main reason why Duterte wants Mabilog out despite the latter’s fawning moves in support of the former’s war on drugs. Why is that so?
It is every Ilonggo’s recollection that on April 19, 2016, then presidential candidate Digong Duterte came to Iloilo City to campaign at Freedom Grandstand but was denied its use. He was diverted to the less prominent La Paz Plaza.
Going back to Chief Inspector Espenido, while his fellow police officers would say “welcome,” would it not show on their faces? He is two ranks short of “senior superintendent” – the traditional rank of police director of a province or of a highly-urbanized city. An instant promotion could demoralize the neglected rank-and-file. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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