Mindanao becoming dumpsite of RP’s “bad cops”

It was a routine surf for news from places where I used to live. The order is always from the latest city, then backwards. So it was from Davao, then Quezon City-Antipolo, Iloilo, and then Cagayan de Oro.

But I was stuck in cyber Iloilo, particularly at Sun Star Iloilo’s website.

The headline reads like this as of 9:55p.m. of September 17: Police prepare transfer of ‘bad’ cops to Mindanao.

Bad cops to Mindanao? Our Mindanao is the country’s dump site?Of course I heard something like this a hundred times before.

Assignment to troubled areas must have meant either as punishment or as training ground for leaders.

There was even a supposed rule in the military before that a general gets appointed only as AFP chief of staff, if he has become the chief of the AFP’s most troublesome area, the Southcom (now divided as Eastern and Western Mindanao commands). That’s another thing, yes.

But this police disposal scheme is foul. Isn’t it? Yes, this might punish erring officials, but are they looking at consequences as far as police work (in Mindanao) is concerned?

And this has passed of as a national policy?

(This is not only the decision of the Iloilo police but also the national government what with the approval of DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno and concurrence of Ilonggo Justice Sec. Raul Gonzales Sr.)

If indeed the Arroyo administration has looked at Mindanao with priority and sincerity, then how could they explain this decision?