DILG chief bats for community participation

This may be apocryphal, but according to our art director’s post on Facebook, she heard this paper’s caption writer thinking aloud about the words to describe a photo to be bannered on the front page. The photo showed Leyte Rep. Imelda Marcos, former president and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, just-declared vice-presidential candidate Sen. Bongbong Marcos, and just-released-on-bail (on plunder charges) Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.

Should it be: “From left, according to degree: Plunder, plunderer, plunder pa more?” Alternatively: “First plunderer. Plunder convict slash pardoned. Plunder respondent slash free on bail. Plunder … heir?”

In the end the editors decided on a rather tame and mundane caption, but the picture, as the saying goes, was still worth a thousand words. It also sums up everything that’s gone wrong in this country in the last 40 years or so. And in the future, too?

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Interior Secretary Mel Sarmiento finds himself in a most unenviable position these days. A congressman representing the first district of Samar as well as secretary-general of the Liberal Party, Sarmiento had to step down from his House seat and take a leave of absence from the LP to take over the position of the party’s standard-bearer, Mar Roxas, at the Department of Interior and Local Government. Should his friend Mar win, Sarmiento says, he wishes “to continue the programs I am pursuing now at the DILG.” If not, then he has his work with various United Nations bodies and local governance training institutions to fall back on.

To be sure, he has the experience to back his credentials for the post. Before winning his House seat, Sarmiento was mayor of Calbayog City for three terms and secretary-general of the League of Cities of the Philippines. In all those years, he told participants at yesterday’s “Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel,” he had many occasions to work with Jesse Robredo, Roxas’ predecessor as interior secretary and multiawarded mayor of Naga City.

“We fought together for many years on the issue of the Internal Revenue Allotment,” Sarmiento recalls of the well-loved Robredo, who died in a plane crash three years ago. After years of litigation, the local governments finally won their rightful share of income and fiscal autonomy, but it was only during Robredo’s short stint at the DILG, Sarmiento says, that “power was given back to local governments.”

Something Sarmiento is particularly proud of are his accomplishments as mayor of Calbayog. In 2007, he notes, Calbayog ranked as the “poorest city” in the country, but by 2009, according to figures released in 2012 by the national statistics board, Calbayog “was already out of the top 10 poorest cities.” And if the economy continues on its upward trajectory and local governments get their rightful share, he says, such largesse should benefit many more cities and towns and townsfolk.

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A large part of the DILG’s concerns and responsibilities, though, is peace and order and overseeing the work of the Philippine National Police.

Responding to complaints about the increasing incidence of crimes against tourists in Manila, Sarmiento conceded that this was a concern; he agreed with recent findings that on average three crimes against tourists are reported each day. They are trying to better protect tourists, he said, but added that the government needs to increase the number of police, the better to provide more police visibility in tourist areas. At present, he notes, the ratio of police to civilians is 1:680, certainly far from ideal.

Thus, Sarmiento makes his pitch: “The work of law enforcement and keeping the peace depends not just on the police or the courts. One of the five pillars of the criminal justice system is the community, and it is the most important. Ordinary citizens should see it as their duty to report crimes that they see or suspect to the police, and be willing to act as witnesses when the police come to investigate.”

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Sarmiento, in his quest to improve relations between the police force and the community, urges citizens’ groups—civic organizations, business bodies, even neighborhood or sectoral associations—to more visibly honor the good work being done by police officers.

He cites an off-duty policeman who was aboard a public bus with his wife and child, and who saw it as his duty to go after three criminals who were holding up the other passengers. “The way he fought off the criminals is straight out of a Hollywood movie,” Sarmiento exclaims, noting how the cop used one of the wounded thieves as a shield against another who was firing at him. The third holdup man was able to get away.

“Of course we will continue to go after the bad elements of the police,” Sarmiento concedes. “But I think we should hold up the police officers who do exemplary jobs to public recognition and praise.”

Asked which police district has turned in the best performance so far, he cites the Eastern Police District (covering the cities of San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasig and Marikina) as the “best performing,” but adds that other police districts are fast cleaning up their act and launching campaigns in the most crime-prone areas.

This he attributes to Operation Lambat Sibat, a favorite project of Roxas, which Sarmiento describes as an “MRI” to help authorities accurately and effectively diagnose the crime situation in their areas and thus formulate plans and actions to better improve performance.

Though he has but a few months left in office before the elections, it’s obvious that the new DILG chief is determined to make the most of his time there.