A television network has exposed what is happening with the bounty for wanted criminals and rebels. The funds are supposed to be shared to informants alone but are shared with certain members of the police force.
I have heard about this many years back, but it has not been reported on until now.
The TV show said that the bounty, which can go to the millions of pesos, is split three ways among the informant, the handler (who deals directly with the informant), and the superior of the handler.
If the bounty is big enough, other members of the police force and alleged witnesses also get their cuts.
Santa Banana, no less than a retired chief of the CIDG or Criminal Investigation Detection Group said over television that he also had a share over the arrest of wanted criminals.
The police and even reporters covering Camp Crame are aware of this kind of corruption. Some covering kidnapping for ransom by the Abu Sayyaf Group and other Moro rebels also attest to the fact that when ransom is paid to the kidnappers, the money is also shared by certain elements of the police or the military .
Why this has never been investigated puzzles me.
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I admit I’m a movie freak. I wonder, however, how the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board rates movies and television programs. At times, there is excesive violence that sometimes viewers are led to believe that killing people is part of normal life.
Explicit sex is anothe thing. A man and a woman meet for the first time, and the next thing I see is that they are doing it as if sex outside marriage were the most normal thing to do.
Why is the MTRCB allowing these?
Because of this, I would now like to ask: Do we still a need for the MTRCB at all?
Other countries no longer have censorship boards like we have. The money being appropriated for its members can be used elsewhere. Besides, political patronage rules in the appointment of MTRCB members.
Aside from this, distribution of movies from Hollywood and elsewhere is cornered by two big Chinese syndicates so much so that owners and operators of shopping malls have to kowtow and “deal” with these two syndicates.
I know this for a fact since at one time, my late good friend Ka Imon Cuevas who owned a shopping mall in Bacoor and Imus towns in Cavite complained to me that he could not show first-run movies in his malls unless he made some kind of “deal” with the two syndicates.
This explains why some movies are never shown in shopping malls although they are shown elsewhere.
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When President Aquino formed the Council for Peace Summit composed of well-known peace advocates, he got it all wrong.
What the people want is a Bangsamoro Basic Law that can stand scrutiny by the Supreme Court.
The creation of a citizen council was precisely aimed at soliciting people’s support for the peace process.
In the first place, whatever this council proposes or advocates will still undergo scrutiny by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Council cannot legislate. In fact, it usurps the function of Congress.
The people, especially Mindanaoans, have been found by the latest poll survey as against the BBL. They do not believe that the BBL is not the final solution for peace and development. In other words, the Citizens’ Council is just a waste of time and effort.
I’m not totally sold over the peace process with the MILF. The MILF has shown duplicity in negotiating peace with government. The Mamasapano slaughter of the Fallen 44 clearly shows that the Moro rebels cannot be trusted anymore.
I’m no war freak. I know what war is about since in my teens, I grew up among the guerilla fighters in the North. I know what it was to hide in the mountains. I have seen the worst of men during the guerilla days.
But, peace, lasting peace, must encompass all the stakeholders in Mindanao, not only the MILF.
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The extremely low percentage of Bar examination passers (18 percent) calls for an honest-to-goodness review of the annual Bar exams. Why do so many candidates fail?
There’s need to review the format of the Bar examinations. Originally, it used to be an essay type of answers, but it’s now multiple choice, which does not show the comprehension of the Bar question and how it should be answered.
Another thing is that many of law graduates cannot express themselves in English, much less comprehend questions. I know this because I was once a law professor.
To be truthful, the quality of law graduates and even those who pass the Bar is below average.
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