|
The City of Manila’s Mayor Alfredo Lim made our day again. He has
once more shown how consistent and admirable an enemy of crime he
is.
The Filipino “Dirty Harry” vowed last Monday
not to lift a finger to help his son, Manuel, who was arrested in a
drug bust.
He said “Manuel should be man enough to face
the music. I will not protect him. I will not lift a finger to
help him. Whatever trouble he has got himself into he must bear by
himself.”
Manuel is a 44-year-old man. He had been
arrested with two other suspects for allegedly trying to sell
methamphetamine—also known as shabu, which is the most popular
illegal drug in the country. They did not know that their sale was a
sting. Their buyer was an undercover agent of the Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency.
Police have filed charges against the young Lim
and his companions. If convicted, Manuel could face a
long prison term for selling shabu.
A model LGU official
We have always admired Mayor Lim for being a
staunch anti-crime crusader. He cleaned Manila’s red-light
districts of prostitutes and drug dealers in his previous (pre-Lito
Atienza) terms as mayor of the Philippine capital. He is a model for
other local government officials.
Not too many Filipinos liked his use of the
spray-paint in one of his anti-drug campaigns. What he did was
spray-paint warnings on the the houses of suspected drug pushers.
This was criticized by activists as a violation of the house-owners
human rights. Besides, they reasoned, some of the residents in the
spray-painted houses—the wives and children and parents of the
actual drug pusher—were most likely innocent. What if some
crazed anti-drug crusader threw a grenade at the house?
Mayor Lim relented and stopped his unusual
campaign. But it was effective. Many of Manila’s drug
pushers moved to other places—especially Pasay and the Baclaran
area.
We need more public officials with Mayor Lim’s
honesty and consistency as a crime-fighter.
It must have been painful for him to make the
decision to let the law take its course in the case of his
flesh-and-blood Manuel.
Mayor Lim’s posture runs counter to the
feudalistic and overly-personalistic mentality of the Filipinos.
That mentality is often the source of corruption in this country.
A less strong-willed and honest powerholder than
Mayor Lim would have surely sprung Manuel out. The mayor could
have easily managed such an operation. He is after all a former
chief of the national police and a former senator. But it would have
sullied his integrity.
If President Arroyo had been as firm a crime and
corruption fighter as Mayor Lim, she would not have to suffer for
the alleged corruption of her underlings—and perhaps some close
friends and political creditors—whose wrongdoings are being
exposed in Senate investigations.
Many people of good will are not joining the
anti-Arroyo forces holding rallies and trying to organize the public
into forming a massive movement that will force her out of office.
Among these are the Catholic bishops and the
impressive body of former senior government officials (FSGO). These
two groups have made sharp assessments of government corruption.
They see the President as—at least—negligent in curbing
corruption that has cost this country scores of billions. The FSGO
says she must be central in these alleged corrupt deals.
Yet they do not want to add their voices to the
call for her resignation or ouster by people power.
They want her to continue being president until
her term ends in 2010. But they do insist that she must zealously go
after her administration’s monsters of corruption.
We hope the President heeds the CBCP and the
FSGO. Doing so can’t possibly be as painful as Mayor Lim’s
resolve not to lift a finger to help his son out of the mess
he has put himself in.
Lim as Malacañang anti-corruption czar
Here’s our inspired thought: Mayor Alfredo
Lim—despite being an opposition party member and a close friend of
former President Estrada who has of late been actively speaking
against President Arroyo and asking her to resign—is one of those
men of goodwill who want President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to finish
her term.
He has vowed to keep her safe from any force
that will unconstitutionally push her out of the Palace.
Why not make Mayor Lim the Palace’s
anti-corruption czar? He can be that while keeping his job as Manila
mayor.
But, of course, if she takes our unsolicited
suggestion, she has to give Mayor Lim the proper equipment and
resources to collar the thieves and scoundrels in the corridors of
power.
|
