Bored by the unending refrains from the Congress Quadcomm hearings? Here are some interesting political developments from Davao.
The Quadcomm roasted former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (PRRD). The scene in Congress, whose members were unheard of at the time the country was teetering on the edge of becoming a narco state and reeling under crime syndicates, only made PRRD’s followers more cohesive and proud of their leader.
Davaowenyos watched a bunch of legislators who severely lacked the credentials and experience of a battle-scarred Duterte. They wantonly wasted time and the people’s taxes delivering incendiary speeches and throwing questions they read from prepared scripts.
By their interrogation, the stooges thought the war on drugs was a walk in the park. A strip-dancer among them questioned why policemen died or were wounded in raids and advanced his thoughts that the law enforcers were not assisted by the government.
What a show of buffoonery. In scurrilous accusations born of sheer ignorance they thought they had scored points when they assailed PRRD for waging “Operation Tokhang.”
But “tokhang” is actually derived from the Cebuano words “toktok” meaning to knock (on the door) and “hang” from the word “hangyo,” meaning to plead.
In brief, Operation Tokhang was a police operation conducted in Davao City where policemen knocked on the doors of suspected drug pushers and users and pleaded with them to either surrender or be rehabilitated.
Davao City has two rehabilitation centers for drug addicts. If a suspect happened to be the head of the family, he was given an allowance of P2,500 per month while in detention or rehabilitation.
I don’t know the credentials of Dan Fernandez to be chairman of one of the Quadcomm committees. Garrulity should never be a qualification for it can only lead to absurdity.
What made him think that drug syndicates are not armed? What made him think that in armed encounters our policemen could not be wounded or killed in action? A policeman (who was wounded in action) was called to testify obviously to make a show that policemen had died because of Duterte’s crazy drug war and those who were wounded were not attended to.
The policeman, however, testified that he was wounded in a legitimate police operation and he was given an adequate allowance of P100,000 through his ATM account for his hospitalization. In fact, the policeman said, he opted to take care of his wound at home.
The honest revelation of the policeman must have shocked Fernandez that he called off the circus.
But on a positive note, this endless inquisition is doing PRRD a favor. In Davao City where he filed his certificate of candidacy for mayor, the people are all the more proud of him for singularly facing a retinue of characters who denounced him for fighting drug and criminal syndicates which his accusers obviously consider a violations of human rights.
The hearing also proved that none of his accusers would risk their lives to fight crime and criminals like the former mayor and president did and, as he has publicly declared, will continue to do so.