As one watches that 17 September sequel of a TV program, an awesome array of disturbing thoughts comes to play.
For example, in the case of that police raid on a “saklaan”, elements of the PNP just swooped down on people like they played “patintero” with a frightened faceless crowd clueless of what the lightning raid was, the end results of which nobody will ever know.
Then there was this raid on a karaoke bar suspected of being front for human trafficking involving minors or girls below 18. Pity for these young girls, believed to be minors, portrayed as though they can be ‘commodified’.
Offhand, on both cases, what the authorities tell us is merely argumentative with their arguments purely syllogistical, meaning, “if proven to have violated the pertinent law as a competent judge or court may order”.
As to that fake pedigree certificates for dogs being illegally sold to unsuspecting buyers, again the PNP will just come behind its unaware target and arrest them. This and the two earlier cases did not as much as involve a reading of the supposedly constitutional rights of those getting arrested.
In all three, the common approach is entrapment operation. To any ordinary man in the street, there ought to be a serious question on whether or not it may have been launched while clearly violative of everyone’s fundamental rights.
These cases are but open-ended. In the pedigree thing, who really swindled who since who were arrested look like they were mere agents of a bigger syndicate. And don’t we find “saklaans” most everywhere as a common social scene? Incidentally, this thing on young girls is an indicatively favorite theme with of course its crew as poseurs.
From where I stand, the manner these cases are presented no longer seem to satisfy that overarching goal to let people know what they ought to know inasmuch as all these variations in a theme already come as penny a dozen short of saying nothing positive is achieved thereby.
Furthermore, both explicity and implicitly, all these choreographed almost theatrically conducted raids seem to show how the rule of law is wantonly violated by those who should in fact preserve their sanctity, if we may call it that.
Lastly, too much in personnel and man-hours are ‘robbed off’ the organization that could have been employed in more urgent tasks. Truth be told, the problem of “saklaan” is better left to the barangay officialdom. The business operation of the karaoke bar again, to the municipal or city concerned since every worker is supposed to have been issued a working permit by PESO. As to the swindling case, everyone just have to play guard against anyone out to fool anyone.
Sometimes, one wonders how the Fourth Estate has to cross its borders to play police in what look like approaches called “wild goose chase”. All told, it does not educate us to have to view all these so-called “investigative” reports as they all appear pure abuse of the true intent of entrapment which in other civilized settings are actually illegal if not unconstitutional.