Sirs/ Mesdames,
Last Sunday, when I was out of town, certain Public Order and Safety Division personnel – Maflic or something – his signature wasn’t quite readable on the receipt – came over to the neighborhood where I reside, claiming he was acting upon a complaint, by whom he didn’t say.
Anyway, he first confiscated the plates of a motorcycle parked at the side of the road, and warned my son that he should move his car because its right wheel was jutting out from the garage and obstructing traffic.
Now when did the POSD acquire jurisdiction over private property? Did you men ever bother to find out who owns the road? If he had taken pains to do that, he would have been told that the road is not a barangay or city road but a family-owned property, unless of course the POSD has rights over every road.
I am guessing, however, that someone was just trying to score points with his boss – you know, just like the Gestapo during Hitler’s time.
Your methods of confrontation appear to be curiously similar – no retreat, no surrender.
When Morris Domogan was still the acknowledged political kingpin of the city, nine terms each as mayor and congressman – he and I had a few bitter misunderstandings over politics and other issues, but I do not recall him ever being petty – nor were his people – by going as far as harassing one or other members of my family.
He is a lawyer after all, not one with a military background, and took criticism well – or at least not showing resentment to his critics even if he hated their guts.
I write this only because there was a previous incident where some POSD personnel did the same thing – confiscating the license plates of all the vehicles parked along OUR private road.
We once offered to donate the road to the city with one small condition – that it should be extended to the New Lucban “circumferential” road, but the mayor then, said to be from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, insisted that we donate it sans conditions.
Power and politics will one day sink this country to the bottom of the sea, just like the abrogation of the University of the Philippines and military agreement on claims that the U.P. is being used as a haven for enemies of the State.
Guess who the enemies of the State are? As any U.P. student will tell you, the enemy is within themselves. All they need to do is to cleanse themselves, and ang ating minamahal na Inang Bayan will be enemy free.
Of course, the corrupt, the abusive, the unthinking, and the hypocrites in government will still have enemies – like the perennial enemies of the Lower House of Congress still acting like spoiled brats. Mind you, I refer as well to the leftists and the party-lists.
But here’s how we should play out our little scenario.
Just return the license plates, no need to apologize. Should you refuse or ignore this letter, be warned that I have engaged the legal services of veteran lawyer Rene Cortes for him to file the necessary legal action.
Oh yes, in my time as City Prosecutor, I never oppressed or did any harm to law-abiding citizens.
Except for the hardened criminals, I always addressed cases that came to my office with compassion and mercy.
I do not think anyone ever said of me “who does he think he is.”
You should hear what a lot of people are saying behind your backs. Even some police officers seem to resent your intrusive manners.
You should hear what is being said behind your backs,
Benedicto T. Carantes
P.S. As pedestals go, before you know it, it will no longer be there. Do try not to slip off it ahead of the inevitable. I have seen them all come and go.
Very truly yours,
Benedicto T. Carantes
