By Robert B. Roque Jr.
As a journalist, not a doctor, I may need more education on the impact of pneumonia on the elderly. I am only aware that it opens a weak senior citizen to complications or could be a severe infection that may require surgery and long-term recovery. But it is treatable in this day and age.
I do need a little bit more convincing, though, that the disease can be so severe as to alter Chavit Singson’s end-stage political ambition to be a senator. I get it — he caught the disease, he’s Joe Biden-age, and it’s a grueling marathon to the May elections.
Still, I find something off about his particular declaration of withdrawal from the race, putting on a grand show at the Mall of Asia before an audience of 10,000. That’s more like a show of force to me than an admission of frailty and weakness to sit in the Senate for the next six years.
Let me be clear: I’m not rooting for the macho man of Ilocos Sur to win. I just find a lot of weird things happening in our recent elections — substitutions, deleting names on ballots, disqualifications, and crazier candidates — that I wouldn’t be surprised if his withdrawal from the race is just part of a play that resolves in his running for the post, anyway.
Remember that Chavit is a political genius who knows how to play his cards to beat the house — fairly and squarely or maybe even otherwise. So, as long as his name stays on the official Comelec ballot come Election Day, only voters can count him out.
PNP actors
Firing Line has been around since the 1980s, calling out excesses by our nation’s police. I should be tired and weary by now with the recurring crookedness and scandals that tarnish the image of our police organization.
But what can I do — fall silent in the face of another shameless PNP spectacle? The Department of Justice (DOJ) is digging deep to unravel how the country’s biggest drug bust in Tondo back in 2022 was actually staged and corrupted by cops!
So far, the PNP says it is hell-bent on bringing to account all those responsible, arresting 15 of the 29 active and inactive police officers implicated in the 990-kilo drug haul riddled with cover-ups, pilferage, and corruption.
Yet while lieutenants and lower ranks have been captured, according to the PNP’s latest report, the top brass among the suspects remain scot-free. Why the delay in their arrest — or is this another zarzuela?
What alarms me is the integrity of the drug case itself. If law enforcers flouted protocols, can we trust the original operation or its evidence? The DOJ must dig deeper, prosecute faster, and ensure this “grand conspiracy” faces real justice.
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SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View via X app (formerly Twitter). Read current and past issues of this column at http://www.thephilbiznews.com
