Falling on hard times

IN ABOUT TEN DAYS, we will hold our Barangay and SK elections. We need to go to our respective precincts to exercise our sacred right of suffrage. This is one privilege we do in a democratic and free country, hence, we should do what is required of us under the law.

Lately, however, we are confronted on the issue of candidates mentioned in the narco list made up by several agencies led by the Department of Interior and Local Government and substantiated by the Philippine

Drug Enforcement Agency. We are being made aware of candidates with links to drug lords and pushers and, worse, are users themselves. We are advised to avoid candidates with illegal drugs links.

One caveat to this assumption is that what if those on the narco list are not tainted by any connections with drug lords and their names were inexplicably included in the narco list and are therefore prejudged and their political careers will fall on hard times?

Active in the pursuit of narco list barangay officials is the DILG Undersecretary for Barangay Affairs Martin Dino, a former barangay chairman and therefore very knowledgeable on barangay affairs.

Dino is also at the forefront of the reported illegal land sale probe of tribal lands supposedly covered by Ancestral Domain title at the outskirts of the Clark Freeport subzone, or particularly in Barangay Calumpang.

At the behest of so-called tribal leaders and non-Aeta individuals like Albert dela Cruz, former Vice Mayor of Mexico town, Robert Serrano and Roy Tanglao of the Samahang Tribung Aeta (STA), an investigation on the alleged illegal sale of tribal lands is to be initiated with Usec Dino assisting the tribal leaders plus the officers of the NCIP, a government agency mandated to monitor the tribal affairs.

Included in the legal controversy is Barangay Calumpang Chairman Jaime “Jimmy” P. Jimenez who loudly protests his inclusion in the brouhaha on tribal lands. Making a delicate balancing between the “kulots” and the “unats” Jimenez performs with wise and judicious precision over the issues brought before him and the barangay council.

To his credit, Jimmy, who is up for reelection as barangay chair, studies every concern brought before him, including the alleged sale of tribal lands to an official of the Bureau of Immigration.

Ever a stickler to laws, rules and regulations, Jimmy invokes the provisions of the Indigenous Peoples Reform Act or IPRA law on matter affecting tribal lands.