‘Bantay Salakay’

‘Bantay Salakay’ | Daily Tribune

It looks like the scandal over the posthaste relief of the security detail of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte will stay with us longer than the destructive floods and the fairy tale of PBBM’s SoNA (State of the Nation Address) about the 5,500 flood control projects.

The putrid muck left by typhoon “Carina” will still fill the air even as President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. tells his subalterns not to talk about it but instead blame the devastation on climate change.

The VP’s dressing down of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Rommel Marbil has reverberated in and out of the police organization.

Expectedly, the phalanx of the usual propagandists called it “excessive entitlement,” referring to the 433 security personnel, and went on to compare her with former VP Leni Robredo.

Indeed, 433 bodyguards is a lot and 75 may be just right. But the initial detail was assigned when she was Secretary of Education concurrent with being the “designated survivor” and is now down to 45.

There is no basis for comparing VP Sara and former VP Leni whatsoever. The former Davao City mayor is a crime fighter and gives no quarter to criminal syndicates and armed insurgents. As VP and DepEd Secretary, she spent most of her time visiting schools in far-flung areas, a habit she formed when she was mayor.

I cannot say the same thing for Leni. Early on, she was given the position of “anti-drug czarina” by PRRD, but she surreptitiously sent a video to the United Nations denouncing the administration’s drug war. The rest was about her pretty legs.

Anyway, General Marbil’s directive recalling the security detail of VP Sara elicited questions that beg explanations. As the PNP top cop, can he arrogate unto himself the authority to recall or reduce security units assigned to the Vice President without the knowledge of or consultation with the second highest authority of the country? If not, did he get the order from Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos?

But neither policeman Marbil nor Abalos issued a statement on the controversy, thus creating speculation the order might have come from the Commander in Chief.

Amid the furor, presidential sister Senator Imee Marcos demanded the reinstatement of VP Sara’s security detail, taking a gibe at Marbil: “At sino naman yang Rommel Marbil? Ni hindi ko nga yan kilala!” (And who is this Rommel Marbil? I don’t even know him.)

Indeed, he is not the kind of cop we hear about from those who preceded him but some Facebook posts tell us that Marbil was once assigned in Tacloban City. That makes him closer to the gods. I’m not saying his appointment as PNP chief is part of the cousins’ act. Maybe he did something right that we don’t know about.

But it turns out that VP Sara’s security detail was not the only one pulled out by the PNP. Mr. Malasakit Senator Bong Go’s security detail was recalled three weeks earlier. He kept the relief to himself but aired his sentiments only after the PNP did the same thing to the Vice President.

“I’m reminding the leadership and the whole force of the national police to remain faithful to their sworn duty and never engage in any political agenda. Be professional and just do what is right,” he intoned. (Well, what do you know? Soon after the senator’s remarks, his security detail was reinstated.)

For now, Vice President Sara Duterte, in response to Marbil’s insinuation that she was not under threat, asked the PNP Chief why an unauthorized video was taken at NAIA showing her and her family departing for abroad. She likewise revealed that her family’s rented house in Manila was under surveillance. Is this a case of “bantay salakay” in the offing?

There is a groundswell of outcries from the retired officers the PNP and I am sure the rest of the officers and men in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, retired and active, have their ears to the ground.