Delfin Lee is in custody. One down, four more to go.
Lee, until recently a fugitive from justice for estafa over an alleged large-scale financing scam involving housing projects developed by his company, Global Asiatique, had been on the lam for a couple of years.
He’s one of five high-profile fugitives who have so far evaded the police and, as a consequence, embarrassing President Aquino’s administration.
Notorious military general, Jovito Palparan, the brothers Joel and Mario Reyes, and Ruben Ecleo complete the rogues’ gallery of high-profile wanted personalities.
Palparan, known as the “Butcher” for his alleged involvement in persecuting rights activists while he was commander of various military camps, has gone underground. (Observer insists that he should be called “Executioner” if the term ascribed to him, “bergudo,” is to be translated correctly.)
The Reyes brothers are wanted for the murder of Palawan broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega. And Ecleo is being sought for a graft conviction and another for the killing of his wife. Each of these fugitives has a reward of P2 million on his head.
The elusiveness of the five has been en embarrassment for the government and for Mr. Aquino personally for the police’s inability to capture them.
I have written before that the President should exert a focused effort to find them and bring them to justice. It’s been a long time until the ensnaring of Lee this month.
As we all know, the President has been the butt of propaganda that he’s inept, incompetent, and unqualified to be chief executive. His detractors have coined derogatory terms like “Noynoying” (based on his nickname Noynoy) to characterize his supposed laziness and laid-back administrative style.
Observer surmises that such criticism is manufactured by those who are out of power looking in and who are preparing for the 2016 presidential election and thus are working hard to undermine Aquino’s steady popularity (his endorsement of a presidential candidate in 2016 will be key). This is evident in sustained propaganda in media commentary and in letters to newspapers.
I had proposed earlier that the President should take a hands-on approach to nabbing the five fugitives and show the people that he’s in command and in control of things.
My suggestion was for Aquino to form a tracker team of savvy police operatives who can read the wind and hear the ground and find the fugitives. This can be done as part of police operations (police chief Alan Purisima has a team in place) or it can be done outside of routine processes and channels.
Even better, Mr. Aquino can mobilize his chosen people from his personal circle of trusted operatives in order to maintain strict compliance with his orders and the element of secrecy. This way he can closely monitor the activities and leads of the clandestine team.
Aquino should take a page from the highly successful operations and missions of the Navy Seals of the United States who are expert at tracking down hard-to-find fugitives.
We’re all familiar with the sensational exploits of the Seals, most particularly the tracking and killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. And the precise shooting of Somali pirates who had hijacked an ocean tanker which has been dramatized and popularized by the movie “Captain Phillips.”
For all we know, the President already has such a tracking team or teams out there sniffing the tracks and traces of Palparan, the Reyeses and Ecleo. But so far no luck in finding them and we can only conclude that if indeed there are such teams deployed, they haven’t been successful in their missions.
(The President recently hinted that another high-profile fugitive may be captured soon, which may happen between the writing of this column and its publication at month’s end.)
But Mr. Aquino should pursue this idea, if he hasn’t set one in motion already. Can it be done?
Given expert skills, good intelligence and excellent execution, sure it can be done. If the US Navy Seals can do it, any properly trained team can as well. Israeli commandos do it all the time to track, capture or kill their nation’s enemies. Other countries surely have their own versions.
The President only has to give the operation(s) full funding, their teams given intense training, and his full backing and blessings to succeed. But they have to operate in complete secrecy to prevent any leaks that would otherwise tip off the tracking teams’ prey.
The capture of Delfin Lee gives the President some breathing space from critics who have been after him as being not in control. Lee is not as controversial and as much of a household name as Palparan and the other fugitives, but it still goes to the plus column of the President’s tally sheet of work done.
It will also help boost Aquino’s still good ratings. But more than anything else, Lee’s capture provides the President fodder against his critics who accuse him of doing nothing. Mobilizing tracker teams and snaring Palparan, the Reyes brothers and Ecleo would further improve the President’s stock, silence his critics, and boost his reputation.
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