Gatdula dismissal a warning to the entire bureaucracy

NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula has only himself to blame for what happened to him. Maybe his hangers-on thought it’s business as usual in their agency, that misdemeanors and petty wrongdoing that do not usually invite the attention of media and Malacañang would go unnoticed and would be soon forgotten.

But President Aquino has made this clear in sacking Gatdula, among his first appointees when he assumed the presidency: The old, rotten criminal ways will not be tolerated in his government and he means business. He will clean government of bad elements and the enemies of reform. Who needs enemies anyway?

P-Noy, who is determined to follow the “matuwid na daan,” has no choice but to burn bridges even with the people closest to him—like Gatdula. May Gatdula’s case serve as a warning to the entire bureaucracy: those who will cling to their bad, old habits will get the axe. The President wants to steer the bureaucracy back to the right path and we, the citizens, ought to support him.

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (Who will guard the guards)?” asked the Roman Poet Juvenal. We cannot help but ask the same thing about the National Bureau of Investigation, the nation’s primary investigation body. If the NBI cannot be trusted to carry out its sworn duties, who else can the people trust?

—TED P. PEÑAFLOR II,

tedpenaflor@yahoo.com