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

WE won’t be surprised if controversial Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido will soon be the next target of the extra-judicial killing (EJK), a bloody method of executing criminals and which has tainted the image of the Philippines.

Let’s hope he won’t suffer the fates of Police Majors Joe Pring and Timoteo Zarcal, who were both gunned down at the height of their popularity as “trigger-happy” Manila cops in the early ’90s.

There is more than meets the eye in the recent move of the Philippine National Police (PNP) hierarchy to relieve the rock star of his post as deputy chief of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) after serving only for more or less four months.

Either there was truth to the report that Espenido was included in President Duterte’s list of police officials linked to illegal drugs, or he had to be axed for being someone “who knows too much.”

Four years since the Duterte administration uncorked the deadly war against illegal drugs, no one really knows the real score.

Nobody can tell how many street-level drug pushers have been neutralized and how many big-time drug traffickers have been arrested.

Are they really being seriously pursued?

Or everything in as far as the campaign against illegal drugs is just a charade?

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What most people know is that we are losing the battle against illegal drugs.

That there is a disturbing trend of some prominent characters all over the country being abducted surreptitiously not for ransom but to be “silenced” (sometimes their bodies or skeletons were recovered in a drum underneath the river or the deep water, and in most cases, their whereabouts have remained unknown).

More small fries and even bystanders are maimed and killed via EJK than the real traffickers of illegal substances.

More arrests have been made against small-time drug pushers than the drug lords, who still control the multi-billion business; and who still apparently enjoy the protection of those whose who are supposed to arrest and lock them in jail.

In his brief stint in Bacolod, Espenido must have become too big for his britches because of the gargantuan media attention he has been raking in.

Sent to Bacolod to do a man’s job, he failed to nail down a single drug lord and submitted an egg.

There were allegations that some big names in the higher echelon and the powers that be were not only involved in the protection racket of the syndicates but are members of the syndicates themselves.

If the syndicates have successfully hammered out their arm-twisting and influence-peddling tactics to sully Espenido’s reputation in Malacanang, he is finished.

From hero to villain.

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REENERGIZE WITH EXERCISE EARLY EVENING. Even though we’re tired, forcing ourselves to do aerobic exercise will energize us for a couple of hours and make it easier to fall asleep at night.

Our body temperature naturally falls at night, shortly before bedtime, so the natural dip in temperature that happens about 2 hours after a workout can help us get to bed at a decent hour and wake up refreshed the next morning.

AVOID CHEMICALS IN OUR CANS. Canned food alert: Consumer Reports found bisphenol A-a chemical linked to reproductive problems, diabetes, and heart disease–in all 19 brand name canned foods it tested, including those labeled BPA free.

Because levels vary so widely, even among cans of the same product, there’s no way to predict how much we’re getting.

LET’S TIME OUR NAP AFTER LUNCH. Research shows that naps, especially “power naps” of 20 to 30 minutes, help ward off fatigue. To maximize the benefits, let’s try taking a siesta after lunch when our energy levels are particularly low.

Let us limit rest to less than 30 minutes, or stretch it out to 60 to 90 minutes to avoid grogginess that results from waking up in the middle of deep sleep. (Source: Prevention)

The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo