Is it also believable that Mike Arroyo would decide to involve PNP in this anomalous deal without making sure that the PNP chief is into his scheme?
The seemingly velvet glove treatment of Verzosa in this anomalous deal that cost the reportedly cash-trapped PNP, and in a larger picture, the Filipino people millions of pesos, is intriguing and disturbing.
Three days after the Aug. 23 hostage-taking fiasco that left eight tourists from Hongkong dead, the survivors were accompanied by Malacañang officials to the airport for their flight back home.
At that time, tempers were high in Hongkong against the bungling of the Philippine government that turned their compatriot’s holiday into a tragedy. The survivors and their relatives couldn’t help expressing their disgust over the post-tragedy attitude of the Aquino government. They wondered why nobody was taking responsibility. All that they were getting were excuses and justifications for the incompetence that was witnessed live by the whole world.
Despite statements of condolences, the impression that the survivors and their relatives got was, the Aquino government was not serious in making officials be accountable for the debacle. They cited the melamine scandal in China in 2008 when two persons found responsible for the contamination of the infant formula that caused the death of six babies and illness to thousands were executed.
That sentiment was relayed by a Malacañang official to officials involved in the debacle. The official said, then PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa replied, in his typical emotion-devoid manner of speaking, “Okay, I’ll let Magtibay go.”