What possible good did the “disclosure” — that Congressman Prospero Nograles was being hunted by assassins — do to Davao City? If the authorities were convinced that they had suspects (they even had police sketches of them; in this country, apparently all one has to do to make a threat seem credible is to produce kuris-kuris of unrecognizable men), why are there no arrests? And why all the speculation that Leftists could be behind this plot?
Ariel Casilao of Bayan is right: Nograles is nothing to them. They would gain nothing from his demise. Jeppie Ramada of Bayan Muna had an even better line: that what haunted Nograles was not some assassin but his conscience.
Even Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has said that the “militant” Left was not behind this alleged plot. And, considering his connections to the Left, he ought to know.
So why is Nograles spewing all this nonsense that the Left is out for his head? Just because he has proven himself to be a huge (con)ass, utterly subservient to his master in Malacanang?
What this alleged plot does, however, is contribute to the growing perception that the discredited Arroyo regime is trying to deflect public attention from its sins. Indeed, some quarters are now even thinking that the alleged Nograles plot and the “car bombing” of Rep. Robert Jaworski Jr. last week were all staged to create a situation similar to the one that gave Marcos the justification to declare martial law (“Fake ambush of Enrile ushered in martial law — Inquirer” ).
Unless the authorities can present suspects and convincing proof that there’s a plot to kill Nograles, the public would be better off being absolutely incredulous about this. The police and the National Bureau of Investigation just don’t have the credibility anymore to convince the public about this self-serving plot on their mere say so (which is probably why Duterte chimed in with his “confirmation”).
While they’re at it, they should also make an effort to answer some basic questions about the supposed assassination plot against Rep. Jaworski. If it was a car bombing, he would have been blown to smithereens. But what happened, apparently, was that there was a smoke first, then the fire — that, to me, indicated that the “assassins” didn’t want the congressman dead. If they did, they wouldn’t have warned him off with a smoke coming from the engine of his Innova. This gave Jaworski the opportunity to park his car, step out of it, sprint away from harm, and watch as his car is engulfed by flames. Car bombs, as we could glean from reports emanating from Israel and Iraq, don’t emit smoke before they go off. They just go off, period.
Back to Nograles. He has offended the public enough with his public display of affection to Arroyo. He’s done enough. He’s made his point. He’s paid his political dues, and I’m sure he’ll be rewarded for it. Why does he have to insult our intelligence? (Carlos H. Conde/davaotoday.com)
