THIS is an unsolicited advice to PNP chief, General Dionards Carlos: Sir, please issue an official memorandum ordering your men to refrain from entertaining request from retired police officials to go easy on moneyed Chinese nationals known for violating the country’s laws as these former officers are wantonly ignoring the police motto ‘to serve and protect without fear or favor.’

A common complaint among PNPA graduates-turned heads of different police operational units is the presence of retired police officers– whom they only knew in the papers and from rumors and gossips when they were still in their high school days– who have gained notoriety for acting as ‘informal lawyers’ of Chinese lawbreakers especially those involved in illegal POGO, casino and other unlicensed business activities.

The joke going around Camp Crame nowadays is that there are some former police officials who have organized their respective ‘law firms’ although they are not lawyers. What they do is to visit or call the heads of police units who have arrested their Chinese friends for various violations including economic sabotage and violation of the copyright laws and try to put some weight on the arresting officers.

The reason is obvious, many officials told me. These retired cops-turned ‘lawyers’ are asking the arresting unit to go easy on the foreign law offenders since they can have something in return from the lawbreakers to the disadvantage of the policemen who made the arrests. The only exemption here is when the offenders were arrested for illegal drug activities. Since our government is so serious in its war on drugs, no person, whether he is a retired official or not would dare to help a drug offender lest he be tagged as a ‘drug protector’ and included in the Duterte ‘narco-list.’

Many of these retired cops-turned ‘lawyers’ have gained a not-so-good reputation when they were still in the active service and up to now are doing the same thing, trying to impose upon their juniors by dropping the names of other PNP and government officials. This has to be stopped by Gen. Carlos.

Many Filipino-Chinese and pure Chinese nationals I know are Good Samaritans, always ready to help our countrymates at all times without asking anything in return. They include members of the FFCCCII, the Filipino-Chinese Business Community, the Taiwanese business federation who have poured in tens of millions of pesos worth of donation to the government, the PNP and the Armed Forces and LGUs in particular during times of disasters and calamities and even during good times.

However, what is saddening is the presence of some Chinese nationals who have decided to stay in the country to engage in illegal enterprises victimizing their compatriots and other Filipinos. They include armed Chinese ‘gangsters’ attacking and kidnapping POGO and online casino workers who are trying to leave their bosses’ companies in the country.

The sad thing here is that there are some cases of Chinese ‘kidnapping victims’ who have turned out to have merely feigned their kidnappings, even knowing the exact places where they were supposedly held captive and managing to make phone calls to their embassy, my friends from the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group told me.

This is highly-suspicious since I think there is no place in the world where kidnappers would allow their captives to have a mobile phone while under captivity. Only dumb kidnappers would not strip their captives of their cellphones since this would easily allow them to make phone calls to their families and authorities.

Then there are the Chinese nationals who are involved in illegal drugs and other smuggling activities in the country. These are the foreigners who have made easy money here to the consternation of our authorities and the poor people.

This week, agents of the CIDG National Capital Region Field Unit arrested a 24-year old Chinese national and his employee for involvement in the illegal sale of E-cigarettes in Metro Manila.

Zeng Chao Ming, a resident of Unit 791, Shore, Pasay City and Rosekate Racad,23, were arrested in an entrapment operation 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, said CIDG director, Major General Bert Ferro.

I learned that members of the Manila District Field Unit of the CIDG-NCRFU headed by Colonel Glenn Silvio recovered three boxes containing an estimated P450,000 worth of E-Cigarettes RELX Pods and the P30,000 worth of boodle money topped by a marked P1,000 bill during the sting.

The Chinese national was reported to be a member of a syndicate involved in the sale and distribution of smuggled RELX E-Cigar and vape products being smuggled into the country. He is now facing criminal charges for violation of Republic Act 8293 or the intellectual property code, RA 1937 or the tariff and customs law and RA 7394 or the country’s consumer law.

CIDG-NCRFU operatives are also tracking down one Chinese named Kevin Yang who was identified as behind the illegal sale and distribution of smuggled Peking Duck in the metropolis.

Two Filipino employees of Yang were arrested during a sting in San Rafael Village in Navotas City 10 p.m. Monday. Silvio told me that they launched the sting amid a tip that alleged smuggled agricultural products were being sold to the public in Navotas without any permit from the National Meat Inspection Service.

The operation was in line with the instruction of PNP-CIDG director, Major General Albert Ignatius D. Ferro to go all-out against economic saboteurs and those who are endangering the consumers’ health, he explained.

Col. Silvio said that in coordination with the NMIS and the Navotas City Health Office, they conducted the operation which led in the arrest of the two while in the act of unloading different boxes containing frozen products along the roadside.

Recovered during the operation were an estimated P63,000 worth of frozen Peking Duck, black chicken, swordfish, ‘galunggong,’ mixed dimsum and frozen pig foot. The products were found in 21 boxes. The suspect’s white Hyundai shuttle van with plate no. NDO 564 was impounded by the arresting team.

The suspects are now facing charges for violation of Republic Act 10611 or the Food Safety Act of 2013, said Silvio who told me that Yang has been identified as involved in the alleged sale of sub-standard and smuggled frozen goods without proper government permit. He said that the products are reportedly being distributed to different markets and stores in Tondo and Divisoria, Manila.

“The confiscated meat products were merely placed in unsanitary areas along the road exposing them to bacteria contamination which is dangerous to public health,” said the official. I fully agree with him. There will always be a great danger to public health if we really allow these unsafe good products to be sold in our markets and groceries. This also brings to my mind how safe are the Peking Ducks we find in Chinese restaurants in our country.