‘…Carlos’ credentials, accolades and recognitions will not exempt him from political pressures from Malacañang and the administration party.’
BLACK propaganda is on the rise against Vice President Leni Roberdo, two of them on Facebook. One alleges that Robredo is using stolen public money to fund her daughter’s college education abroad. Another shows an unidentified supporter of Bongbong Marcos claiming that Robredo was offering payoffs of P20K each in Bicol for Marcos followers to turn their backs on Bongbong.
Without doubt, this was a revived fake info on the Vice President’s daughter who was on a full scholarship at Cambridge University that also covered her living expenses. There was supposed to be a video to show the alleged pay-offs but this was nowhere to be found even after a dozen clicks on the similar fake link. The Vice President’s face was instead edited to show she was caught by surprise by the “public disclosure.”
The Marcos camp continues to heap mostly personal assaults on Robredo as apparent reprisals for attacks on Bongbong, which have escalated since President Duterte claimed that one of the presidential aspirants is addicted to cocaine, aside from being a weak leader. The President has drawn fire from the Marcos camp and unwittingly defused the intense demolition job against the Vice President.
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The new PNP chief, Dionard Carlos, will be presiding over the 2022 national and local elections. He was chief of the Directorial Staff or the No. 4 man in the PNP when he was appointed by Duterte. He had gone over the heads of two senior officers.
With Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, the main criteria was anything but competence when he became the personal choice of Duterte for PNP chief. The President knew that Dela Rosa, who was Davao City police chief during Duterte’s long mayoralty tenure, was ready to take a bullet for him and surely deserved an overlay of trust and confidence. A true and faithful soldier and without missing a beat, Dela Rosa carried out the country’s most brutal drug war.
Carlos was a former spokesman of the PNP. He and six other Filipino officers that included retired Lt. Gen. Cesar Binag and former PNP Spokesman Maj. General Bernie Banac had served with distinction under a UN Peacekeeping Force in Syria and then at East Timor. His stints in operations and intelligence were highly commendable. But Carlos’ credentials, accolades and recognitions will not exempt him from political pressures from Malacanang and the administration party.
The generally peaceful conduct of elections has generally been the yardstick of every PNP chief’s shinning accomplishment, but it was no guarantee of the integrity of the ballot.
Would Carlos be able to confront the real score of widespread fraud skillfully hidden from the public view that peppered the national and local elections since President Cory Aquino left office? Few had been arrested and prosecuted from the nearly countless incidents of vote-buying that would ostensibly overwhelm the Comelec and the PNP, a major issue that connects to the syndicated networks of bribery, extortion, harassment, and horse-trading.
