By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Let me voice out some observations of a number of people about the resignation of DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
If indeed somebody at the DOJ recommended for Espinosa and Lim, known drug lords, to go scot free without the knowledge of Aguirre, then he deserves to be fired for having no control on what was going on in his department. Was he that stupid?
He was not, some people say. That means he knew about the drafting of the recommendation which he still had to act on. Would he have approved of it, if it was not leaked to the press?
He would not have, considering the President’s war on drugs. Otherwise he would have been fired right there and then.
Or was he ordered to cause the drafting of that resolution to be leaked out to the press? If so, then what was the consideration.
Could somebody have told him, “You cause the drafting of that resolution so we can get the money of these drug lords. Walang hiya naman talaga ang mga yan, e!”
The money must have been big. Really big. When you talk of drugs money, it is in the billions of pesos.
Then Aguirre was told, “But if the matter gets too hot in the perception of the public, then you take the fall. But you will already be financially made for generations to come. Hindi mo pa kelangang magtrabaho. Then we will rehabilitate you by appointing you to a high post after some time”
Was this what happened?
We don’t know.
Somebody opined that anybody who would have resolved the cases of the concerned drug lords would have recommended dismissal as there was no evidence. That is crazy. There is a big difference between saying there is no evidence and not wanting to find the evidence. Remember the admissions of Espinosa before the Senate. Those were actually admissions of guilt or against interest at the very least.
And we are supposed to be at war against the drug lords, especially these humongous ones. Was formal evidence really necessary. Small time drug dealers are being gunned down left and right. And here we are talking of evidence.
So what was the deal? That is the question.
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Editing during bad times is really hell. I have not really recovered from my Bell’s Palsy although the deformity on my face is not that immediately perceptible anymore. While my speech greatly improved there is still that difficulty to pronounce some words.
The worst is the discomfort when a part of your body is suffering in a major way. Then you don’t actually function normally. Most especially when it comes to working on anything that needs some degree of concentration. It can be stressful.
But because we cannot afford to pay an alternate editor, I have to soldier on.
Along with the time constraint I have to do things the short cut way. I would only read the first two paragraphs and it these are OK then the writer must have been in a good mood that any mistakes in the succeeding paragraphs would be minimal. For the known writers who could not really write well, I have no energy to rewrite, so a number of their pieces will not see the light of day.
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