By Robert B, Roque, Jr.
Health experts and business leaders are divided on whether or not it’s time for the country to embark on a “new normal,” beginning with the stripping down to the barest of restrictions. That, of course, has already been decided for them by the IATF yesterday.
Personally, I subscribe to the science-based, data-driven approach to deciding alert levels, restrictions, policies, and response protocols. But even with sound policy decisions and direction, our experience these past two years proved we fair poorly in preparation and execution.
Meanwhile, our economy continues to fade like a man drowning in his own fluids. So, regardless of what the IATF decides today or tomorrow, I believe Filipinos must start accepting that the only thing within our control is how we protect ourselves from the COVID-19 threat.
More of us must realize that we need to impose upon ourselves the health protocols and act appropriately as if living within one’s personal bubble while striving not to burst into another’s. That, to me, while utterly bereft of social warmth, is the new normal of social interdependence, our key to beating this pandemic.
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Customs personnel accosted last Feb. 2 two suspected yakuza members upon arrival at the NAIA Terminal 2 from Japan for carrying over 100.6 million Japanese yen (about P50 million).
Surprisingly, just as they were to be taken for temporary detention by Customs investigators, 10 armed men in civilian clothes who introduced themselves as agents of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) interfered and took custody of the two Japanese men.
It was only upon the assistance of the PNP Aviation Security Group that the CIDG men returned the two Japanese to the Customs Office at NAIA half an hour later and fled the scene.
If indeed, these are yakuza men – at least, judging from the tattoos on their bodies – what was the business of the CIDG team that turned up at the airport? If I were the PNP Chief, I would be itching to find out why my men in the CIDG were meddling in airport security affairs, ask them if they had a warrant, operation plan papers, or even coordinated with law enforcement counterparts at NAIA.
But then, of course, that’s Gen. Dionardo Carlos’s job.
The two suspected Yakuza members have already been charged with smuggling before the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office. So it’s high time Gen. Carlos lets us all in on the truth if these CIDG men have been sanctioned to serve as escorts to yakuza gang members.
If not, the PNP should clear the air by breaking its silence, identifying these CIDG agents, and holding them accountable for their stunt at the country’s premier gateway.
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