OFFBEAT MAIL

Ecstacy pills in the markets. Credit: bar.wikipedia.org Combined police operations have seized more illegal drugs in Metro Manila and the suburbs of Batangas province, where international couriers in cahoots with local Filipinos were apprehended and are now facing criminal charges for illegal drug peddling. This developed after the law enforcers received reliable tips from concerned individuals that led them to their posh condominium hideouts  in Makati City and a ranch in Lipa City, Batangas, owned by the Leviste family, recently. The anti-drug operations were conducted by the PNP, Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority (PDEA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). According to Atty. Roque Merdegia, chief of the PNP's Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Force, they had been conducting surveillance operations concerning the movements of a drug dealer in Lipa City, believed to have tie ups with the Mexican-Sinaloa drug cartel, for a long time until they final...

Baker Atyani A Jordanian journalist identified as Baker Atyani, along with two of his Filipino crew, was kidnapped in Sulu. Was it a frame up kidnapping scenario or not? Nobody knows yet as negotiations are on-going to find out if he was really kidnapped. According to reports, Atyani came to the Philippines as a tourist.  Interior and local government Secretary Jesse Robredo said Atyani did not secure a working permit from the Bureau of Immigration before he went to Mindanao. His main objective in going to Sulu was allegedly to interview ranking members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf that is notorious for kidnap for ransom activities. However, there's a mystery in Atyani's visit to southern Philippines. Observations surfaced that Atyani may have other motives aside from his being a journalist why he visited Sulu. Political observers have thought that he could have been used as a courier to bring an important messag...

With the kind of politics that the Philippines has, the disbandment of the Integrated National Police (INP) that led to the creation of the Philippine National Police (PNP) under the Department of Interior and Local Government Act of 1990, should not have been effected. Why is that? Because the present political set up, with the PNP put under the wings of the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) is not ideal under the Philippine setting. I think it would be appropriate if Congress will enact a new law that will amend in part under Article Two of the Local Government Code, Section 28, which in a way gives "operational supervision and control of local executives over the police force...assigned in their respective jurisdictions shall be governed by the provisions of Republic Act No. 6975."Perhaps, it is about time that this provision shall be rectified in the sense that the police are vulnerable for use and abuse by local government executives. I knew that it is ...