A police ‘casualty’ due to Typhoon Lando

EDITORIAL

As Typhoon Lando exited the country, a “casualty” was reported in Benguet. It was none other than provincial police director Senior Supt. David Lacdan who was relieved from his post by Local Government Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento.The “lack of preparedness” that led to 14 deaths in Benguet at the height of Typhoon Lando was blamed on Lacdan.

The joke going around is that Lacdan was sacked for telling the truth and giving the correct death toll as a result of the deadly typhoon which had Benguetat the top of the body count as compared to other provinces in Northern and Central Luzon hardest hit by the storm.

Lacdan, who had only been in his post for only three months, obeyed without a fuss saying he was deferring to a superior official. This, even if Gov. Nestor Fongwan said, “The provincial police did their work very well” under Lacdan’s command. Maybe a scapegoat was needed for the 58 fatalities considering Sarmiento just assumed his post as the newest kid in the block of this administration.

Maybe, Sarmiento also wanted Lacdan to undergo “stress debriefing,” the reason given by the Interior Secretary’s predecessor when Chief Supt. Elmer Soria was sacked as Leyte provincial police director at the height of Super Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013.

As more bodies started piling up, Soria, collating estimates culled from affected areas, said the death toll could reach 10,000. Soria, who also came from the Cordillera regional police command based in Benguet was placed on “floating status.”

Lacdan and Soria, who know each other, have one thing in common – they wanted to give an accurate assessment of the situation, in this case typhoons Lando and Yolanda and got sacked for it.

It leaves a bad taste in the mouth when good and competent police officers are given the boot for trying to do their jobs well. In times of disasters like super typhoons, it is so hard to cope with the wrath of nature.

If a house suddenly slides down a mountain due to a landslide bringing along its occupants to their deaths, there is not much a police director can do, no matter how much they prepare for such catastrophes.

But such is government, or rather the officials at the top in Imperial Manila. They assess situations from their comfortable offices so far away from the action and sack or fire their men on the ground who are doing the hard work. We can only salute police officers like Lacdan and Soria for doing their jobs well.