‘Dirty Fred’

The spate of killings during the last few days — first the deaths of a seven-year old girl in Caloocan City from a bullet fired up to the sky and dropping down on her head, and of a young boy on New Year’s Eve, followed by ignominious massacres of families — has revived a deafening fear and — hatred of firearms. As to what is right ­— gun control as a deterrent against killing, or “responsible” gun ownership that claims firearms are tools for self-defense remains a contentious issue. The Senate is divided on the issue, and the President, a shooting aficionado, is hard put to lend his ears to both sides.

The use of the gun to quelch criminality had made a hero of Fred Lim, an officer in the Manila Police Department from the 50s to the 80s. His reputation was that he would shoot down criminals without compunction — a reputation he admitted as correct, he told me last week. If, he said, people he was running after were about to shoot him, he would be the one to shoot them first. He added that a Supreme Court decision says that “a police officer, when confronted with danger when he is on duty can’t run away from that danger, he has to stand his ground.”

People refer to him as the local equivalent of “Dirty Harry,” the police inspector of San Francisco who did not listen to his mayor telling him to go slow in arresting black gangsters as the city will lose money. Clint Eastwood starred in the film as the inspector.

Mayor Lim said he is not for a total gun ban. He believes that law-abiding citizens should be allowed to have licensed firearms but keep them inside the house for self-protection. “When one carries a gun outside the house, one can be aggressive, and forced to shoot someone whose looks he does not like.”   

He recommends making purchasing firearms difficult with gun sellers and the Camp Crame firearms processor checking out a buyer’s background and potential for violence.

Fred entered the Manila police force in 1951, after finishing the commerce degree at the University of the East. From patrolman, he slowly moved up the ladder, ending up as general, then chief of police, and appointed by the late President Corazon Aquino as a 2-star general. When he retired on Dec. 21, 1989, Cory appointed him director of the National Bureau of Investigation.

During his three-year term, NBI became a popular agency. Fred’s men arrested drug pushers and rounded up gambling lords, and gunned down an army colonel caught with 10 kilos of heroin at the Magallanes Commercial Center.

An interesting episode was his serving then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce-Enrile a warrant of arrest for his alleged involvement in the “God Save the Queen” coup attempt. No one dared do what Fred did. Fred took him to the NBI headquarters where he stayed for one day, and the next day, to the Northern Police District. When the Senate President now and Lim meet, the former asks him, “How is my arrestor?” Then they have a good laugh.

At another time, Fred was called to Malacañang by President Cory. It appeared military and police generals resented the NBI director’s guts. Cory had a copy of a resolution signed by 27 generals which said the director could not be relied on to defend the President. According to Lim, “President Cory said, they’re wrong, I was very active in defending her during coup attempts.” All the while, the general who was the No. 1 signatory in the resolution did not say a word.  

After Lim retired from NBI, he decided to turn to politics. He had become a hero. He ran and won in two mayoral elections (1992 and 1995). He beat Mel Lopez in both elections.

From “Dirty Harry” Fred became known as “Mr. Clean,” for cleansing the city of honky tonk bars and forcing entertainers to move to Pasay City. He would later have food stalls proliferating along Roxas boulevard torn down, as these were suspected of harboring drug addicts.

In 1998, he looked up to higher stars: he was one of eight candidates running for president of the Republic. Erap beat all seven of them.  

At the start of the campaign period, he had to resign as mayor, and turned over the care of the city to Vice-Mayor Lito Atienza. Jobless after his unsuccessful presidential bid, Fred hosted two popular weekly programs with Kaye Dacer at ABS-CBN — “Katapat” and “Pasada Alas Seis Trenta,” which became his bread and butter. He reluctantly gave these up when Erap asked him to be DILG secretary, which he served for one year and 11 days until Erap was impeached in 2001.

After Erap’s impeachment, he went back to his ABS-CBN programs. But Manila was his city: he ran for mayor, but lost to Lito Atienza, Then Lim turned to the Senate, and was elected senator in 2004, his bills mostly on good government and right conduct.

Three years later, in 2007, he ran for mayor again, beating Lito Atienza’s son, Ali, by 93,000 votes. In 2010, he ran for reelection, beating comebacking Lito Atienza by 214,000 votes. He is running, for the last time as mayor, in the May election — his opponent Erap, incumbent Vice Mayor Isko Moreno as his running mate. Fred had nurtured and introduced Isko as “the future mayor of Manila.”`

Fred says while Erap appointed him his DILG secretary, he owes him no debt. Erap had chosen him for the post “as his credibility was already getting eroded,” said Lim. At the DILG, he did not like Erap’s asking him to stay off the PNP. “I don’t consider him a friend, he doesn’t consider me a friend. Erap and Lito have been telling lies against me. Why will I dignify those lies?” He had won the electoral campaigns against former Mayors Mel Lopez and Lito Atienza, with no help from Erap. “It’s too much to say that because of him I won. Meron naman akong pangalan.”

Fred  says, “I can’t say Manila is 100 percent corruption-free, but when I learn about violators, I go after them.” The city has a population of 1,600,000 (doubled during daytime with students and employees from outside the city). He says Manila takes care of the needs of constituents “from womb to tomb.”

 Lim looks forward to President P-Noy’s nod on a proposal to transform the Philippine Port Authority’s dismal Port Area into a $4-billion financial center, with all expenses paid by Korean investors led by Inchon mayor Ang San So who had come to see the site. The proposal is 50-year lease and renewable basis. The financial center will rise to 101 stories and other high-rise business offices, a 24-hour shopping mall, ports and harbors for cruise ships, and a monorail system. Benefits to the city include the utilization of engineers and construction workers, 1,500 employees, and real estate tax payments. The artist’s perspective shows an impressive real estate development that is expected to be finished in 2016 — the year President P-Noy and Mayor Lim will finish their term.

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E-mail: dominitorrevillas@gmail.com