Saturday, April 4, 2009

Abu Sayyaf Group,Who's behind?

Abu Sayyaf Group,Who's behind?

by Erick San Juan

Why can't a band of Abu Sayyafs be captured? Who's funding them? Where are their sophisticated weapons coming from? Why are our law enforcers and local government officials seem helpless against these ragtags? These questions have been asked many times before. Has our government ever learned from our experiences in the past on how to handle and deal with these kinds of criminals? These outlaws have no political nor religious ideology and is known in their neighborhood as petty crime operators, toughies and drug users who metamorphosed into big time banditry protected by their "script writers", scalawags in uniform and few corrupt government functionaries in Sulu.

Kidnapping is a very lucrative underworld business down south. It's sad that few of our local and national government officials became their "negotiators" and some are even sharing their bounties out of the ransom paid. If not for the infighting and double crossing on how to share the loot,the mayor of Indanan and his son will not be caught as conspirators in the abduction of ABS-CBN veteran TV host,Ces Drilon and her crew.

Even media personalities reportedly partake and acted as middlemen in the negotiations. Some were a witting tool in the so called "economics" of KFR (kidnap for ransom). This was a lesson learned by one of them who has used her intimacy with one of the gang leaders, getting her share of the "action" but was kidnapped by the scalawags in uniform. She became the hostage for several months and rescued through the intercession of a religious order. "Kaya wala't wala rin ang kinita nya."

The government and the intelligence community knew the problem and how to go about it. But,what went wrong? It is just proper for the PGMA administration to show its political will. If not, we might have a repeat of the Abu Sabaya incident where the U.S. military intervened to rescue the Burnhams. This was shown several times in the History channel.

Are we going to let the Americans intrude again in our domestic affairs? Overheard, they will and it's justified because it's terrorism and it involved foreign members of the International Red Cross.

The government should take new security measures, upgrade it's policy and act decisively so that those mistakes will not be repeated in the future. Those travel advisories released by foreign governments destroy not only our tourism industry but us as well. Do we have to wait for these foreign governments to give out names on who are really the brains behind the scene? Just asking.......

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

DRUG CARTELS: THE NEW UNDERWORLD ORDER

DRUG CARTELS: THE NEW UNDERWORLD ORDER

By Erick San Juan

Commission on Human Rights is after the perpetrators of vigilantism and human rights atrocities. CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima's focus of attention is at the alleged audacious violations of human rights. She wants to uncover the truth about the unabated killings and executions of suspected criminals, petty drug pushers, perennial law and order violators, etc. It was believed that the "Davao Death Squad" who was behind the so called "dark justice" operation by sowing fear to criminals, first, giving them a warning and then executing them if they continue their mischiefs. The DDS could be right and wrong in what they’re doing especially the summary executions of what some believe are poor people who are forced to commit crimes to live and survive. Some Davaoenos will allegedly be happy to see such kind of executions when they can see "BIG FISH" among the drug financiers, shabu operators, smugglers, etc. jailed or killed.

The Philippines could be the next Mexico where the drug cartels control politicians, some of them are now politicians themselves. Law enforcers and the judiciary are "soft touched" by the drug mafia and allied syndicates using their laughing money as bait. The whole system is easily corrupted mainly due to our low economics of employment especially in the government service.

The situation is really going from bad to worse. The drug cartels are now so powerful and well organized that a narco-politician could be our next president in 2010. Their puppets can even hire the best and the most influential lawyers that money can buy. They can easily put in their payroll top notch public relations practitioners and media men to mind condition the public that their "puppet" is an honorable man who can lie looking at you in the eye.

Yes, crime syndicate apprehension is a police matter but the situation right now is considered a national security threat. The "human wrong" must be corrected and addressed as soon as possible or else we will wake up one day to embrace a NEW UNDERWORLD ORDER.