Skip to main content

ROXAS: Police mishandling Failon case

And you think you have seen the worst from the police in the last few months -- from cold-blooded killing of children allegedly caught in crossfire, to cold-blooded killing of so-called kidnappers shot at close range while the alleged kidnappers were resisting arrest. Now they train their guns on the poor househelp of Ted Failon, on the shocked sister of his now-dead wife. You saw on TV how violative of human rights was the arrest and detention of the househelp and the driver.

No wonder they are called Pulis Patola.

***

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today took the police to task for mishandling its investigation into the case of broadcaster Ted Failon, particularly in the manhandling of Failon’s sister-in-law and others police accused of obstruction of justice.

“Nakiki-simpatiya ako kay Ted Failon at sa kanyang mga kaanak na kinailangang dumaan sa psychological torture na ito habang nagluluksa sila sila sa pagkamatay ng kanyang asawang si Trina. Nakakahiya at nakakainis na ganito na ka-bastos ang mga pulis natin (I sympathize with Ted Failon and his family who have to go through this psychological torture in the midst of their grief for the death of his wife Trina. This is a shame and it is irritating to see how rude our police are),” Roxas said.

Roxas said the police violated the rights of Failon’s sister-in-law Pamela Arteche and house maids Wilfreda Bollicer and Carlota Morbos, driver Glen Pulan and houseboy Pacifico Apacible who were arrested yesterday allegedly for obstruction of justice.

“Kitang-kita ng publiko kung gaano kagaspang ang ugali ng mga pulis na umaresto sa kanila. Bastusan na ba talaga ang sistema natin ngayon? (The public saw how roughly our police handled Ted and the others accused by the police. Is the system really as bad as this?)” Roxas fumed.

He said that while it was imperative that the truth behind the tragic incident be found out at the soonest time, the maltreatment of Failon’s relatives casts doubts on the reliability of the police investigation into the case.

“Alam ng lahat kung gaano katindi bumanat si Ted sa mga nasa gobyerno, lalo na ang mga pulis na corrupt. Nagdududa na tuloy ang marami na tina-target si Ted ng mga awtoridad sa imbestigasyong ito (Everyone knows how Ted criticizes this government, how much he abhors corrupt police officers. So now people suspect authorities are just getting back at Ted, that would explain the rough treatments),” the Visayan senator said.

He said the police have to review its procedures and train its officers and men in the proper handling of suspects to ensure their rights are always protected.

“DILG Secretarty (Ronaldo) Puno, tell your men to shape up,” Roxas said.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Five Poems by Danton Remoto

In the Graveyard Danton Remoto The walls round the graveyard Are ancient and cracked. The moss is too thick they look dark. The paint on my grandfather’s tomb Has the color of bone. Two yellow candles we lighted, Then we uttered our prayers. On my left, somebody’s skull Stares back at me: a black Nothingness in the eyes. The graveyard smells of dust Finer than the pore of one’s skin— Dust mixed with milk gone sour. We are about to depart When a black cat darts Across our path, quickly, With a rat still quivering In its mouth. * Immigration Border Crossing (From Sadao, Thailand to Bukit Changloon, Malaysia) Danton Remoto On their faces that betray No emotion You can read the unspoken Questions: Are you really A Filipino? Why is your skin Not the color of padi ? Your eyes, Why are they slanted Like the ones Who eat babi ? And your palms, Why are there no callouses Layered like th...

A mansion of many languages

BY DANTON REMOTO, abs-sbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/16/2008 1:00 AM REMOTE CONTROL In 1977, my mentor, the National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando S. Tinio, said: “It is too simple-minded to suppose that enthusiasm for Filipino as lingua franca and national language of the country necessarily involves the elimination of English usage or training for it in schools. Proficiency in English provides us with all the advantages that champions of English say it does – access to the vast fund of culture expressed in it, mobility in various spheres of the international scene, especially those dominated by the English-speaking Americans, participation in a quality of modern life of which some features may be assimilated by us with great advantage. Linguistic nationalism does not imply cultural chauvinism. Nobody wants to go back to the mountains. The essential Filipino is not the center of an onion one gets at by peeling off layer after layer of vegetable skin. One’s experience with onio...

Taboan: Philippine Writers' Festival 2009

By John Iremil E. Teodoro, Contributor The Daily Tribune 02/26/2009 A happy and historical gathering of wordsmiths with phallocentric and Manila-centric overtones *** This is from my friend, the excellent poet and critic John Iremil Teodoro, who writes from the magical island of Panay. I wish I have his energy, his passion and his time to write. Writing needs necessary leisure. But this budding, bading politician has shifted his directions. On this day alone, I have to attend not one, not two, but three political meetings. And there goes that new poem out of the window. Sigh. *** According to Ricardo de Ungria, a poet of the first magnitude and the director of Taboan: The Philippine International Writers Festival 2009, “the original idea was for a simple get together of writers from all over the country who have been recipients, directly or indirectly, of grants and awards from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). What happened last Feb. 11 to 13 was far from being ...