Huwag isama si Francis Tolentino

HINDI dapat isama si Francis Tolentino sa binubuong tiket ng administrasyon para senador sa 2025. Walang naitulong si Francis sa kabutihan ng bansa. Hindi namin nalilimutan ng minsan tumayo siya sa bulwagan sa Senado. Petsa: ika-19 ng Hulyo, 2019. Ito ang kauna-unahang privilege speech ni Francis sa Senado.

Hiningi sa kapuwa senador ang pagsang-ayon, concurrence ng Senado sa verbal agreement sa pagitan ni Gongdi at Xi Jinping. Tumayo si Franklin Drilon na lider ng minorya noon sa Senado. Hiningi ang anumang detalye sa kasunduang laway ng dalawa. Walang naiharap si Francis dahil kahit siya mismo ay walang kaalaman sa anumang detalye.

“Ano ang pinag-uusapan natin dito?” ayon kay Drilon sa kakatwang sitwasyon. Wala naisagot si Francis, ngunit humirit pa rin siya upang isalbang ang natirang pride sa sarili at buong kapal na sinabi: “Basta magtiwala kay Duterte.” Hindi namin alam kung pinagtatawanan si Francis ngunit hindi kumilos ang Senado. Hindi sinang-ayunan ang kasunduan ni Gongdi at Xi.

Sa ngayon, hindi malaman ang political orientation ni Francis. Paminsan-minsan, kumakampi sa administrasyon ngunit madalas panig siya kay Gongdi. Bata siya ni Gongdi. Kamakailan, nagpapanggap na kontra-China siya sa isyu ng West Philippine Sea at kampi sa Filipinas at Estados Unidos. Ngunit hindi siya pinaniniwalaan at sineseryoso. Malaki ang duda na bata siya ng Peking. O isa siyang Peking Duck tulad ni Gongdi.

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OPERASYON umano ng Smartmatic ang akusasyon ni Sagip Party List Rep. Rodante Marcoleta na nasuhulan umano ng P1 bilyon si Comelec chair George Garcia upang piliin ang Miru System bilang taga pangasiwa ng 2005 automated midterm elections.

Batid ng Smartmatic na hindi na sila makakabalik sa 2025 kaya bumabawi na lang ito sa pagsasabay umano ng putik sa reputasyon ni Garcia. Hindi namin maintindihan kung bakit si Marcoleta ang captain ball ng operasyon. Walang record ng tagumpay si Marcoleta. Magaling siya mag-ingay sa anumang isyu. Hindi sineseryoso si Marcoleta ng publiko.

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PAGPAPATULOY ito ng pangalawang tsapter ng aking unang aklat . Tinalakay ko ang ilang yugto ng karahasan at kalupitan sa ilang patayan ng giyera kontra droga.

‘SHIT HAPPENS’
LYDJAY Acopio had big dreams for precocious three-year old Kateleen Myca Ulpina, her daughter by Renato Ulpina, a former soldier, construction subcontractor, and live-in partner. She could be a singer like her favorite Regine Velasquez, or a big movie star like Nadine Lustre. Or she could be a professional white collar worker like a teacher or accountant, quietly earning her keep to defray household expenses. Lydjay felt it was a legitimate aspiration for her to make. There was nothing wrong in the lawful ambition.

But Lydjay’s dreams for her daughter were shattered when Kateleen Myca was killed along with her father Romeo, his assistant, and a raiding police officer in what police described was a “buy bust” operations that occured in Barangay Roxas in the town of Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) in Rizal province on June 29, 2019. Police described Kateleen Myca’s death as a “collateral damage.”19 It was a police operations that went confused and out of control.

The police report said a joint team of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and PNP Intelligence of the Rizal Provincial Command was formed to conduct a buy bust operations on the basis of an intelligence report a day earlier that Renato Ulpina, aka Kato, and Enrique Cawilig, aka, Junior, were engaged in drug trading in the community. By 7:30 am of June 29, 2019, the team of PDEA and police operatives launched the buy bust operations against Ulpina with Police Master Sergeant Conrado Cabigao Jr., acting as the poseur buyer of the illegal drug.

HUMAN SHIELD. Police claimed Cabigao succeeded in buying an unspecified amount of drugs from Ulpina, but when Cabigao was about to give the pre-arranged signal to arrest the sellers, Ulpina ran away to the stairs, prompting Cabigao to give chase. The police version, prepared by the PNP Rizal Provincial Command, said Police Senior Grade Ederico Edrick Zalavaria shot and killed Cawilig, who was with Ulpina at that time. At this point, Ulpina fired his gun, wounding Cabigao, police said. Ulpina ran to the roof, taking daughter Kateleen Myca to serve as his human shield.

A flurry of shots rang out and Ulpina and his daughter fell to the ground. Ulpina was killed. Although he fought, he had a ghost of a chance against the numerically superior team of police officers and PDEA operatives. The police report said they ”evacuated” the daughter and brought her to a hospital in the Manggahan district, but she died at 1:30 am of the following day. For his part, Cabigao was shot five times and he died too.

DIFFERENT VERSION
PARTNER Lydjay Acopio has a different version of what transpired in the morning of June 29, 2019. In a six-page affidavit she issued, Acopio did not mention any buy bust operation contrary to what police claimed. A number of police operatives came over to their house and broke the jalousies in the first floor to enter their house, she said in her affidavit. She woke up Renato, who said that “it was a raid.”

Acopio said she collected the five kids, including Renato’s two kids by his legal wife, to go down the stairs but, in the ensuing confusion, she left behind Kateleen Myca, who joined her father on the rooftop. Many shots rang and it was surmised that Kateleen Myca was hit by bullets from the police. It led to Ulpina’s desperation.

“Putang ina ninyo! Natamaan ninyo ang anak ko. Magpapakamatay na rin ako (you sons of bitches. You shot my kid. I’ll join her dying too),” Lydjay quotes Ulpina shouting those words to the raiding team of Rodriguez police officers and PDEA operatives. Seconds after those words, Ulpina came out with his blazing gun. Somebody shouted: “May tama si Boss.” Lydjay Acopio later learned that it was Cabigao, who was hit by a bullet, although she was unsure if those bullets indeed came from Ulpina’s gun.

Acopio’s affidavit disputed the police version that Cabigao was hit when he chased Ulpina in a buy-bust operation. Since the buy bust operations did not happen, the chase did not happen too. This appeared to be the proper syllogism on the basis of her affidavit. It appeared that Cabigao was hit either by Ulpina or a friendly fire in the heat of the confrontation.

Acopio said that Ulpina introduced himself to her as a former soldier and it explained his knowledge of guns. By the time of his death, she did not know if Ulpina took drugs. But he was not in any way involved in drug pushing contrary to the police claim. There was no negotiation whatsoever during the confrontation. Police appeared bent on killing Ulpina, she said in an interview with the author in a fast food joint in Quezon City.

Police Brig. Gen. Edward Carranza, regional director of the PNP Region 4 Command, issued his July 15, 2019 report, which stood by the earlier police claim that a buy bust operation took place and that Ulpina and his daughter Kateleen Myca, Cabigao, and Cawilig all died in what could be regarded legitimate police operations. Carranza likewise gave a spate of recommendations including the filing of homicide charges against police officers, who fired their guns indiscriminately leading to the child’s death. (Itutuloy)