By BenCyrus G. Ellorin
AS in any witch hunt, there is a pattern of tagging, an enabler – mostly public influencer, and then the bloodshed.
It happened to women in the dark ages who were accused of being witches.
It did happen in the 1980s in the infamous Nicaragdao or Agdao district in Davao City where people are tagged as communist sympathizers, are named by a barker on the radio named Jun Pala, and then the killings.
Fast forward to this regime: Lists, matrices have been peddled by no less than the Philippine president on supposed drug lords and their protectors. The mass media amplifies this list. And then the killing of poor ‘drug addicts’ hit crescendo. A phenomenon that has caught the attention of the international community and a probe by the International Criminal Court.
This unfortunately happened here in Cagayan de Oro for a totally different reason. Certainly, not the war on drugs but cheap political hooliganism.
Councilor Zaldy Ocon read in his radio programs the last two weeks, simulcast on Facebook Live, a list of drug lords and their protectors purportedly containing the name of Cagayan de Oro 1st district congressman Rolando “Klarex” Uy, his political ally until of late.
When asked the source of his list in the City Council session last Monday, Ocon refused to divulge, citing journalist-source confidentiality. He then conveniently tells his colleagues who seemed to have run out of arguments, that he did not say the good congressman was a drug lord. He merely asked if it is true the congressman is a druglord and/or protector as purportedly claimed by his list.
Ocon’s reasoning is illogical. The journalist-source confidentiality does not apply. And the burden of proof that his list and assertions against the congressman lie with him, not the congressman. Anyone can come up with a list that says this and that, but the accuser has to substantiate it. Otherwise, a piece of information that cannot be independently verified and substantiated is not fit for publication and/or broadcast.
Ocon’s so-called expose against the congressman is malicious. If he was fair, he could have raised it personally to the congressman or taken it on the floors of the City Council and subject his list and assertions to deliberations.
Ocon behaved with deceit going into the air and cyberspace against a political ally, without taking the issue with the congressman first. Something that he did inadvertently admit, last Monday, to doing with Mayor Oscar Moreno.
Ocon’s malicious, deceitful and unsubstantiated accusations have not only placed in peril the security of Cong. Klarex Uy, but the rest of family and circle of workers and friends.
I will not accuse Ocon of having a direct hand in the killing of the younger Uy last Nov. 11, along with his aide, 73-year-old Samuel Pabalan.
But taking into consideration the condition of impunity and violence that characterize the drug war of this present regime, Ocon is an ENABLER of the ghastly crime in barangay Pagatpat last Nov. 11.
In a condition of impunity, violence has an ‘instant’ and convenient motive, thus empowering criminals with different motives to strike.
For that, Ocon’s colleagues at the City Council should not use kid gloves on him. They should bring him to the Ethics Committee and by the will of the supermajority, be meted the highest penalty allowed in their house rules with the recommendation of further litigation.
Ocon’s betrayal of a political ally who helped him when he was fighting for dear life after a heart surgery a few years ago, is traitorous and unprovoked. Had he been a dog, he could have been put to sleep immediately. Yes, that is what they do to dogs who attack unprovoked.
I respect his rights, but it is just to put him where he truly belongs and have him experience what he deserves.
