Police chief lectures media men with their English

MEDIA MEN BEWARE: Provincial Director Colonel  Marlou Chan 
(C) and Dagupan City Police Chief  Cris Abrahano (R) are stickler 
of the Shakespearean Language. 

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 During the celebration of the Independence Day at the City Plaza graced by Secretary Bebot Villar of the Dangerous Drugs Board and Acting Mayor Belen Fernandez of Dagupan City, I was amused seeing city police Chief Lieutenant Colonel Cris Abrahano "lecturing" some media men who “ambushed interview” him about the city being a transshipment of illegal drugs.
 “Iyang term na transshipment (of illegal drugs from Manila to Dagupan City) it is a misnomer or a matter of semantics. How can we have transshipment here when we do not have harbor or airport to transport the illegal goods? Wala naman tayong harbor dito kung saan ang barko galing sa Manila ay dadaong? Wala namang harbor doon sa Baguio (kung saan wala namang dagat doon na pag dadaungan ng barko- emphasis and humor mine),“ the former official of the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency in the region, declared.
 I instead interjected after he paused and before other media men preempt me with their other misnomer, er, question. “Colonel, sabi sa akin ni former PDEA Regional Director Robert Opena ang Dagupan City ay dropped off points (“Yan ang tamang term,” I overheard Sunday Punch’s veteran scribe Ding Micua quipped in the middle of the jostling and shoving media men) ng lahat ng drugs being supplied to Regions I, 2, and the Cordilleras, what’s your take on that?”
Abrahano said that incase the city is the dropped off point because it is burgeoning. “Maraming negosyo dito, may mga hotels dito na puedi nilang pagpahinga-an”.
***
Provincial Director Colonel Marlou Chan was amused when I told him about Abrahano's giving English 101 to the members of the Fourth Estate.
"Oo nga naman, dapat dropped- off not transshipment" he quipped.
***
The 6 foot 2  tall soft- spoken Abrahano told too the members of the Fourth Estate that it would never happen under his watch that police scalawags (like convicted former Dagupan City Chief of Police Dionesio Borromeo and Senior Police Officer 1 Joey Abang after they were put in a bind in 2008 on a trillion pesos shabu hoard in Brgy Bimmutubot, Naguillan in La Union.) disgraced the police force.
 “Incase any of my policemen are implicated on this illegally heinous activity, I’ll throw the full force of the law against them”.
 Well said colonel, I was just relieved that you did not warn your cops that you’re going to “throw the books like that thick Revised Penal Code I saw at your table after they committed their shenanigans. At least diretso jail lang sila na walang bukol na pinapalalambot dahil sa makakapal na books na ni threw niyo sa kanila.
 Atong Remogat and Ronel de Vera baby, that’s what we call semantics, rhyme, or play of words.
 ***
 “Missing Dawel River Cruise Barges Found”, a recent news headline in one local newsweekly screamed.
Outgoing Mayor Lim’s media lap dogs rebutted the accusation of acting Mayor Fernandez’s media men that it was just proper for the personnel of Magic Mall (owned by Lim) to pull out the two river cruise’s barges that are moored near the property of outgoing mayor because they were owned by Lim.
“It was not true cried by two Lim’s department head where one of them was City Engineer Virginia Alcantara,” I overheard on a radio report.
“Paano maging sa kanila iyon (Lim) the city appropriated P10.1 million for the river cruise project despite it did not pass through a bidding?, a department (was it the treasurer or the accountant?) protested at a meeting called by acting mayor Fernandez.
 My poser: Has the department heads dropped the outgoing mayor like hot potato since he is already a lame duck and has no political value to them anymore?
(Send comments at totomortz@yahoo.com)