The massacre of seven innocent people in Barangay Tabon, Kawit, Cavite last week could have been avioded if the Kawit police only did its job.

According to some reports, Ronald Bae, the gunman, was seen indiscriminately firing his gun during the New Year’s Eve revelry. His neighbors alerted the police about the incident but the local police allegedly ignored the complaint.

If only the Kawit police acted on the complaint that day, those victims of Bae’s rampage would still be alive today. Bae could have been charged with indiscriminate firing and illegal possession of firearms and would still be in jail.

But the nincompoop police chief of Kawit and his lazy men opted to just sit in their desks instead of looking for Bae and arresting him.

PNP Chief General Allan Purisima should immediately sack the entire Kawit PNP and replace it with competent men.

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‘Bantay’ or is it ‘Salakay Kalikasan’?
The environment group Bantay Kalikasan is in hot water and is under investigation for violating the ancestral domain law and illegal logging in Brooke’s Point, Palawan.

The National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP) has issued a cease and desist order in the construction of an Ecological Park by the Bantay Kalikasan group in Barangay Abarungis in Brooke’s Point, Palawan pending investigation of a complaint lodged by a tribe in Palawan that they were driven away by the environmental group from their land which will be turned into a park.

Another investigation is being conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources provincial officer in Palawan against Bantay Kalikasan for reportedly cutting 40 trees in a government forest reservation area to make way for a tourist destination also in Brooke’s Point.

This columnist tried to get the side of the environmental group under Ms. Gina Lopez. Lopez at first agreed to be interviewed but later asked that the interview be taken out whether in a TV newscast or news item in the papers.

Bantay Kalikasan from now on should change its name, vision and mission statements because they do not adhere to what they say in public. Wouldn’t you agree, Ms. Lopez?

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