Chief PNP’s abruptum removere

The “abrupt removal” of Chief PNP, Police General Nicolas Torre III, and nunc statim (immediate) designation of Police Lt. General Jose Melencio Nartatez as either Officer-in-Charge or in Acting Capacity has serious implications inimical to the police force.

Reportedly, a “heated exchange” between Secretary Jonvic Remulla and Torre triggered it. This must have transpired behind closed doors, hidden from public view.

Since Torre is the first product of the Philippine National Police Academy to head the police organization and Nartatez, who immediately replaced him, is from the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1992, might there have been a fanatical struggle for supremacy between the elite academies they represent?

At commanding heights, who would dare change horses in midstream at a time Torre had begun to effect positive reforms in the PNP, which culminated in his streamlining of assignments and appointments of top-level officers consistent with his administrative prerogative.

If in this “reshuffle” the list in the hands of Remulla didn’t tally with that of Torre, which then takes precedence as a matter of customary practice? It’s unfortunate if Torre’s recommended names did not get the approval of the interior secretary, leading to its nullification. Could Torre bypass the intervening oversight of any superior office?

At a recent lecture at the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance by Dr. Raymund Narag on “Rationalizing the Criminal Justice System,” Torre along with Executive Officer Rafael Vicente Calinisan of the National Police Commission, who were present, gave their reactions.

There’s no forgetting what Calinisan answered to the question, viz., “Who will police the police?”

If Torre’s reorganization plan didn’t materialize but in fact caused his exit, this must have been runaway proof of Napolcom’s structural “overreach,” wanting in legal basis.

Recall how earlier Senator Imee Marcos in a Senate committee hearing had a grilling confrontation with Torre on the illegal arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte and surrender to The Hague. This probably laid the predicate that at a later date galvanized FM Jr. himself to push the envelope. Or a Napolcom executive to try to sideline Torre in mute disagreement?

Based on how Torre naturally projected a true soldier’s demeanor in a post-relief interview, it would appear that any subsequent assignment the President might offer him will be as acceptable as the last job. There was no visible sign of one attempting to “rattle the cage” since his removal was not met with any rancor or violent resistance.

More recent events were akin to turning the page before one had even finished reading the previous one, viz: 1) whatever happened to the impeachment case of VP Sara after the Supreme Court had ruled; 2) the sprouting of various inquiries by many quarters after FM Jr. named 15 contractors likely involved in flood control corruption; 3) the inquiries at both the House of Representatives and the Senate being set at self-destruct mode due to the likely involvement of congressmen and senators themselves; 4) the growing popularity and mercurial rise of Torre as a promising populist presidential candidate; 5) or, “as Torre was ambitious, someone slew him” — to paraphrase from Shakespeare.

Meanwhile, synthetic fraud and systemic corruption at high levels of engagement pervade the “bureaucratic yoke” unless higher logic, stronger political will and, absolutely firm resolve characterize the President’s wherewithal to solve the corruption conundrum — free of moral dilemmas, paradoxes, ironies.

Who knows if Torre’s next praetorian role is to drop the “Iron Curtain” to isolate economic saboteurs in law enforcement-led “advocacy coalitions” aimed at putting an end to cycles of corruption in state institutions.

By deus ex machina, the floods demystified the myth of 5,000 flood control projects completed by sheer optical illusion. FM Jr. himself stood witness to ghost infrastructure projects costing billions of pesos gone down the drain. Public finance suffers from no deficit except that infrastructure projects were run by unscrupulous individuals out to “squeeze more bang out of every buck.”