Call of Duty
Daily TribunePoor Melvin Matibag. Imagine the entire Alan Peter problem happened by accident.
Monday morning. Coffee. Melvin is cleaning his desk. He opens one drawer.
Shing!
“SEA Games. 2019.”
He stares at it. The folder is almost smiling. And just like that, Melvin’s peaceful Monday is over.
One guardian angel lands on his left shoulder.
“Close it!”
Another lands on the right.
“Open it.”
Left angel: “You can always pretend you never saw it.”
Right angel: “You’re the NBI director. It says so on the door.”
“He saw only the cover!”
“But it says, ‘Do not open until 2028!’”
“But the drawer opened by itself!”
“Exactly. God opened it.”
“Think of your oath.”
“Think of your blood pressure.”
There are two kinds of NBI directors.
The first closes the drawer. Not very professional. But no enemies. Nice Christmas ham. Beautiful retirement with Ann. Maybe a small farm. Chickens. Mango trees. Nobody shouting, “Dog!”
The other sighs.
“Hayy, Senate na naman.”
That’s Melvin.
People think Melvin opened the folder because he wanted to show Alan who’s boss.
Wrong.
Melvin did not find the folder.
The folder found Melvin.
And once an investigator is chosen by a case that still has unanswered questions, what exactly is the honorable thing to do?
You follow it, wherever it goes.
The oath is not to a president, a political party or a senator. The oath is to the question. Once the question finds you, you no longer have the luxury of pretending you never heard it.
That is the bargain an investigator makes.
The call does not ask whether the timing is kind. Duty never does.
It asks only whether the man holding the badge still remembers why he raised his hand.
June.
Kriiiing!
Melvin picks up.
“Sir. Bato. Senate.”
A very long silence.
Melvin slowly lowers the phone and looks at the ceiling.
“Lord.”
People are already shouting:
“Melvin! Why not flood control? Why not Bongbong?”
What do they expect poor Melvin to do? Walk into Malacañang, tap the President on the shoulder and say:
“Sir, small problem. I work for you. I’m also investigating you. Please acknowledge the irony.”
The NBI is under the President. That is the setup.
Hate the setup. Rewrite the laws. Change the system.
But do not act shocked that the President’s own bureau does not kick open the President’s door.
Alan is standing where the law can still knock.
The other door answers every knock the same way:
“Do not disturb. Come back after the term ends.”
That is not intimidation by Melvin. It is the Constitution making life complicated, as usual.
Maybe the timing is unfortunate.
But persecution is when there was never a door, never a house and never a crime, yet the government builds all three around you.
The failure to investigate alleged flood control anomalies is an argument to investigate those anomalies, not a reason to stop another lawful investigation involving Cayetano.
Timing has damaged public trust in what may otherwise be a perfectly legal investigation.
The NBI could have the cleanest case in the world. It would not matter.
The first question is no longer, “Where’s the evidence?”
It is, “Why now?”
“And why me? Somebody stole a car!”
So the police should release him?
Then the car thief says, “Somebody stole a house.”
Then the man who stole the house says, “Somebody stole the country.”
Now everybody goes home.
That’s where we’re at.