“No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.” –Niccolo Machiavelli

It should not come as a surprise if former Bacolod City Police Office deputy director, Police Lt. Colonel Jovie Espenido, is the next target of an extrajudicial killing. There is more than meets the eye with his recent move away from the Western Visayas—either it is true that he is on President Rodrigo Duterte’s list of police officials believed to be linked with illegal drugs or he was someone who “knew too much.”
It has been four years since the Duterte administration unleashed their war on illegal drugs and nobody knows the real score. Nobody knows how many street-level drug dealers have been killed or how many big-time drug traffickers have been arrested? Are they even being seriously pursued? Has everything been a charade?

The country is losing the battle against illegal drugs
There is a disturbing trend of prominent character being abducted not for ransom but to be silenced, which has resulted in small-scale drug offenders and even bystanders being maimed and killed than the real criminals. In addition, more insignificant drug dealers have been arrested than drug lords, who continue to operate these multi-billion peso businesses and enjoy protection from those sworn to arrest them.
During his brief stint in Bacolod City, Espenido must have become too big for his britches.
Sent to the city to do a man’s job but failed to nail down a single drug lord. There were also allegations claiming “big names” along the higher echelons of power were not only involved in a syndicate protection racket but were active participants themselves.
If the syndicates successfully sullied Espenido’s reputation to Malacañang, he is finished.

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If you engage in aerobic exercise in the early evening, it will boost one’s energy for a couple hours and make it easier to fall asleep. Since body temperature naturally falls at night—shortly before bedtime—the natural dip in temperature that happens about two hours after a workout can help one get to bed at a decent hour and wake up refreshed the next morning.

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According to Consumer Reports, 19 brand name canned goods were found to contain bisphenol A, which is linked with reproductive problems, diabetes, and heart disease.

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Prevention, an American healthy lifestyle magazine, suggested taking a 20 to 30 minute “power nap” after lunch in order to ward off fatigue.

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Alex P. Vidal, who is based in New York City, used to be the editor for two local dailies in Iloilo./WDJ