Applying the law to all

We could not let another week pass without citing the staunch advocacy of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim against crime. Before the Holy Week break, his 44-year old son, a businessman, was arrested with two accomplices in Sta. Cruz, Manila when they tried to sell shabu to a police agent. They were found with 100 grams of metamphetamine hydrochloride, or what is popularly known as shabu, worth P600,000. Mayor Lim, who has earned the monicker “Dirty Harry” for his anticrime crusade ever since he was NBI Chief, even congratulated Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Chief Dionisio Santiago for effecting the arrest of his son. It can be remembered that during Mayor Lim’s first term as Manila Mayor, he also did not protest the arrest of his nephew, another drug pusher.

It is widely known that the Mayor’s platform of government even as a senator included a drug-free and crime-free society. Having been a fierce crime fighter as a city police chief, he sought to solve the crime problem by taking it at its roots. He believed that people are forced to commit crime because of hunger and poverty and the lack of opportunity to have education. Streetchildren sniff rugby because they have no food to eat. We hear that there are about one million streetchildren in our country who need help. We hope that the majority of them are not involved in drugs.

What irks the Mayor most is when the policeman himself is involved in the buying and selling of drugs. He says, “the temptation of a police officer indulging in shabu peddling is great because his catch provides him the commodity to sell and the opportunity to milk money from the person from whom he apprehends the shabu”. In order to have an effective campaign against drugs, he proposed to strengthen the reward system and involve the private sector in identifying drug peddlers. Transparency in the handling of apprehended criminals and the merchandise is of utmost importance. He stressed that the full force of the law must be applied especially on erring police officials and they must immediately be relieved of duty and incarcerated.

At about the same time, another Mayor’s son was also arrested for the killing of a man in Quezon City three years ago. Stephen Grey, the 22-year old son of Mayor Nancy Grey of San Jorge, Western Samar, was arrested by members of the QC Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit. We hope that Mayor Grey, like Fred Lim, will not get in the way and allow justice to prevail.

We have no choice but to detest and condemn crime, no matter who commits them, if we want peace and justice to prevail in our society. We also need to set a firm example to our children — that the right must be commended and praised and wrongdoing must be penalized. We cannot settle for anything less.