Is Azurin a Weak Police Chief?

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I could only shake my head in dismay as I watched the bald headed Senator Ronald dela Rosa tried his two hands to pull a hair on his head in vain as he chided repulsive Police Senior Master Sergeant Jerrywin Rebosora and Police Master Sergeant Lorenzo Catarata who should be a hero but preferred to be a heel after they looted the 42 kilos of the almost one ton shabu (meth) hoard. 

DESPICABLE COPS

The two slime balls were part of the raiding team who seized from Police Msgt. Rodolfo Mayo a 990 kilos or P6.7 billion of meth in the building’s Wealth and Personal Development Lending Inc. - owned by Mayo - in Tondo, Manila after it was raided by his colleagues in the Philippines Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) in October 8, 2022.

CASHIERED Police Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo who was nabbed by his fellow anti-narco cops  in a sting operation. He was later found to possess an almost one ton of shabu (meth) in his building in Tondo, Manila.

“Akala natin kayo na nakahuli na nag operate kayo na ang hero dahil nahuli na ninyo ang bad guy si Mayo ang villain. Kayo ang hero dahil kayo ang nakahuli tapos ninakaw pala ninyo iyong 42 kilos na iyan – ano ang tawag sa inyo?” the former Director of the Philippine National Police lamented. 

The two rogue cops who were not only liable for the non-bailable Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 (Republic Act No. 6425) – geez 50 grams or more, the law says, is life imprisonment - but would have to deal a perpetual reputation before the eyes of the public as thieves, too.

JAILED FOR CONTEMPT

They have been thrown to the slammer of the Senate after Senator Raffy Tulfo filed a motion to cite them with contempt and approved by the members of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs chaire by Dela Rosa after they were caught lying.

The audacity of Mayo became a puzzle to the Filipinos who believed that there was a General behind the chutzpah of a mere Sergeant whom Senator dela Rosa insinuated that he could not be alone on this “isang toneladang shabu (one ton of meth).

NARCO COPS

Despite the failure of the hierarchy of the Philippines National Police under Director General Rodolfo Rodolfo Azurin, Jr. to unmask the top brass, Lt. Colonel Arnulfo Ibañez - the one who handpicked Msgt. Mayo from Jolo to join him in the Spe­cial Operations Unit (SOU) of the PDEG - National Capital Region (NCR) - was there in the hearing.

 Ibañez – the former chief of SOU-NCR - tried to elude the posers of Dela Rosa if he was once a Ninja Cop or under the drug watch like Mayo when the take-no-prisoners’ president Rodrigo Duterte threw to war torn Mindanao those police enlisted men and officers who conspired with the narco peddlers.

It could be recalled Ibanez was assigned in PDEG-Pampanga in 2016 where he was arrested by the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Banawe, Quezon City.

He was accused allegedly by the PDEA of harboring big-time Chinese drug dealers in furtherance of their illegal activities.

 The almost one-ton shabu hoard was suspected to come from their raid in Zambales and Pampanga

Those seized in Zambales in September 2021 came from the Chinese-led syndicate who smuggled over a ton of high-grade through the so-called “shipside smuggling method”.

Several Chinese nationals involved in the major drug smuggling try were killed during that operation.

Those in Pampanga came from a sting operation against two Chinese nationals – Dela Rosa said the police freed – that netted some 500 kilograms of the meth worth P3.4 billion.

MARCOS ADMIN A SISSY ON THE DRUG WAR

The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos - how it deals with the narco cops - looks like a sissy to the brutal Duterte Administration in his early term where the world saw 12,000 dead (Human Rights Watch) in horror.

The capers of Mayo, Rebosora, Catarata and Ibanez could not be imagined to ensue under the two-fisted Tombstone’s Sheriff in Duterte otherwise they would be a cadaver with a bullet hole on the head.

Since Marcos abhors the earth scorched approach of Duterte and prefers to toe the humane law of the land, the former could only mollify the grievances of the Pinoys by exhorting General Azurin to expedite the sleuthing as he would be retiring next month. 

NARCO STATE

I could only pray that our pathetic country under Marcos would not plunge into a Narco State like Colombia during the time of Pablo Escobar and the present Mexico where operatives of the drug cartel in the City of Culiacán, Sinaloa even attacked government security forces that arrested Cartel Boss Ovidio Guzmán who is the son of the ruthless Joaquín  “El Chapo” Guzmán –  the U.S jailed boss of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel.

Ovidio was arrested in October 2019 but was released on the orders of Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to avoid further bloodshed as the cartel came to his rescue with dump trucks armed with 50 caliber machine guns and armed men who shoot out with the beleaguered police and military. They even damaged, susmariosep, two combat helicopters of the government as countless military choppers joined the melee.

Last year, Ovidio Guzman and 21 cartel members were arrested in the City of Culiacán, Sinaloa.

At least 19 suspected gang members and 10 military personnel died during that violent clashes to perpetuate the apprehension.

The cartels - not only the Sinaloa - are well entrenched because they have the military and the police in their payroll. Tens of millions of Americans patronized the dangerous drugs sold by the cartels. Seventy percent of the narcs like meth sold worldwide came from the Sinaloa.  

Mexico Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero told Foreign Correspondent TV that the specialized Guardia Nacional replaced the corrupt police in the country to fight the cartels.

DELA ROSA CALLS THE COPS WEAK

Without the culprits expose on the almost 1,000 kilos of meth seized in Tondo, it would only show Azurin as a weakling police chief. Dela Rosa - cited before the police under Azurin were “malamya (weak)”.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.