Ethical questions of nurturing rats

THE Department of Justice has been nurturing rats and it is only now that the
information has come to light.
If that was not bad enough, now their handlers are counting on us to swallow
the tales their pets have been regurgitating.
Law enforcement agencies around the world have found it necessary to
enlist the help of confidential informants. When it comes to investigations
into organized crime and illegal drugs it is even considered indispensable.
The working theory is that it takes a thief to catch another. The insider
information, therefore, is considered invaluable where no other source of
equal worth is obtainable elsewhere.
But officers of the law hob-nobbing with felons is an ethical minefield.
Because the person asked to rat on his cohorts is also a criminal, there are
sticky ethical considerations that have to be threshed out and parameters
put down; to ensure that the information gleaned is reliable to protect the
integrity of the agency.
It is of paramount importance therefore that the rules are well-defined when
the services of such an informant can be sought, how the information he
provides will be handled and by whom, and how when such relationship can
be terminated.
Questions have to be asked about the propriety of Senator Leila de Limas
disclosure that a gangster was a government asset when she was Justice
Secretary because the informant is still in jail, in the midst of an ugly
investigation against some very powerful and dangerous people, many of
whom are in his limited sphere.
But bad as that situation is, the present DOJs conduct is even worse as it has
drafted the assistance of drug lords and murderers to provide testimony
not against operating drug syndicates but against a government official
who just happens to belong to the political opposition.
One or two would have been understandable. But half a dozen rats given
blanket immunity for disclosing what they know leaves a funky smell that
simply refuses to go away.
The Office of the Ombudsman, with its reputation for probity, might now
have to step in to determine where and how many times government
officials involved have overstepped the bounds of legality.
The public deserves to know who are the rats and who are their handlers or
if the distinction has ceased to exist.

The enemy is within

WHOEVER controls the government controls illegal drugs.
Actually, not only illegal drugs, but also illegal gambling, illegal logging,
illegal mining and a host of other unlawful activities, felonies, crimes, and
scams.
Jueteng operations cannot flourish in a province, city or town without the
approval of the governor, mayor, congressman and chief of police. Same is
true with drugs.
It took several weeks into his war on drugs for President Duterte to realize
this fact, really a sorry state of Philippine affairs. The President himself
disclosed that in this war, we are fighting key government officials who had
chosen the other side. The enemy is within.
Dutertes latest list of drug offenders and protectors includes judges,
prosecutors, police officers, mayors, and other officials. And he gave this list
to the military, not the police, for proper action. The Commander in Chief has
full confidence in the Armed Forces to deliver results.
In fact, the President is even considering the revival of the Philippine
Constabulary to handle the fight against drug lords, and possibly the
forthcoming conflict with terrorists.
The ongoing public hearings in the Senate and in the House of
Representatives on the drug problem have deteriorated into a contest of
media charges and counter charges, with both camps all government
officials involved in the fray.
These legislative hearings only confirmed that big-time drug dealings happen
inside the New Bilibid Prisons, and that the key players are inmates who
were, and probably still are, in cahoots with top government officials.
The public would still be entertained by a barrage of titillating scandals
before charges are filed in court against known perpetrators, if ever these
are filed at all.
This results in all three branches of government executive, legislative, and
judiciary along with the uniformed services, being very busy tackling only
one problem, the issue of illegal drugs.
If this goes on any further, the government will have its hands full in just one
concern, to the detriment of the economy, agriculture, trade and industry,
foreign affairs, health, education and other important
areas.
And even this overkill will not guarantee that the Duterte administration
could eliminate completely the drug problem.

Perhaps it is time for this administration, after its first 100 days, to put its
focus on other concerns, such as the economy.

Rotten in and out

IN a manner of speaking, we should all perhaps be thankful that Congress is
providing us with a spectacle worthy of a noontime soap opera even if we are
made to wade through layers of fluff before getting anything of real
substance.
Because beyond the entertainment value of the congressional inquiry, we
are afforded a rare ringside view of the monstrosity lurking behind the
whitewashed walls and painted faades of our penal system and everything
that is wrong in it.
The collective testimonies of various witnesses paraded at the House inquiry,
while arranged and presented for maximum damage against the former
Secretary of Justice and her alleged cohorts, actually showed a much bigger
picture, one that portrays a diseased structure that was supposed to protect
our day to day existence.
Convicts of heinous crimes and government officials recounted details of
massive corruption inside the Bureau of Corrections with a relish of someone
delivering a coup de grce to a hated nemesis.
Let it not be forgotten that the allegations against Senator Leila de Lima,
whether true or not, are but a sideshow. What is on the crucible here is not
just one individual or two but the countrys entire reformatory framework.
Buttressed by their spanking new immunity, the witnesses eagerly told their
tales without regard for loss of face or even a hint of remorse at their
participation in so venal a crime.
If the tales were to be believed, top officials of the BuCor and the Justice
Department willingly took part in the protection racket for drug lords,
gangsters, and murderers.
The penal system was supposed to reform criminals, perhaps prepare them
to rejoin society after they served punishment for their misdeeds.
Under the scheme revealed to us yesterday, there is no chance of that
happening.
Criminals lorded it behind the walls of the New Bilibid Prisons. The system did
not reform them, it instead corrupted officialdom.
And there was not the slightest suggestion at yesterdays hearing that a
solution is forthcoming or that those in position are even looking for one.