‘It is still a puzzle why President Marcos Jr. refused to bring the matter of executive clemency to Mary Jane Veloso when he met with President Joko Widodo during his state visit to Indonesia.’
IT seems the PNP is still saddled with poor record-keeping of the actual number of crime indices and the spotty objectivity of accomplishment reports from police districts nationwide. This may likely be the reason why its spokesman is still unable to divulge with accuracy and thoroughness the official data and figures on crime incidents.
I recall that while doing research work on the PNP for our church’s police ministry, I was able to obtain two sets of figures during the term of PNP chief Jesus Verzosa in the late 1990s. The first set contained a fewer number of crime incidents in the last year of Verzosa’s predecessor as compared to the figures that almost doubled under the first year of Verzosa’s tenure.
The accomplishment rate in the solution of the cases under the former PNP chief was a puzzling high of about 70 percent while it was about 40 percent during the same period the following year under Verzosa. It was not difficult to see that the first set of figures had been weighed down incredibly by overstated data and figures, as there were no major intervening factors that spelled the large margins.
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It is still a puzzle why President Marcos Jr. refused to bring the matter of executive clemency to Mary Jane Veloso when he met with President Joko Widodo during his state visit to Indonesia. Never mind that Press Secretary Trixie Angeles said it was a very sensitive issue that would likely not be taken up during the state visit.
PBBM should not be bothered by possible public embarrassment in case Widodo denied the request. It’s hard to believe he is ignoring the life of an overseas Filipino worker.
A local hard-hitting newspaper columnist wrote that Veloso’s execution should push through to serve as a strong warning to other Filipinos abroad. He said that Veloso deserves the death penalty because as a drug mule she was blinded by the huge money from smuggling P1.6 kilograms of shabu.
My question to this columnist: Would you feel the same way if it were your sister or daughter who is in the shoes of Veloso?
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The late Nelia Sancho left a life of privilege, fame and prestige to confront society’s torments by taking the “narrow road that leads to life,” as it says in the Bible, or a renewed life of hope and change for those she helped rise over oppression and wickedness.
Councilor Pilar Braga of the Davao City Council gave a privilege speech paying tribute to Sancho. She said that Nelia “had led a revolutionary life and made a leap in taking up the cudgels for the grassroots women in the public arena when she visibly assumed major tasks in the broadening of the women’s movement in the country.”
This may be how thousands of grateful Filipinos would remember her for the rest of their lives: “You are our symbol of courage, you are our emblem of hope, you are our model of faith, you are our paragon of hope, you are our champion, you are our hero, you are our Legend.”
