Speaking of courage and principles: A modern Wonder Woman

I'm not sure if you've read the news that a college major, at 20 years old, was appointed chief of police in a town in Mexico. We'll in case you haven't read that yet, actually, that's not yet the actual news. You see, Mexico is well-known for its drug cartels and drug wars, right? And since its president declared war against illegal drugs a few years back, more than 20,000 lives have been lost -- I can only assume this number includes criminals, victims, as well as collateral damage, so to speak.

Anyway, going back to the 20-year-old criminal major student, Marisol Valles García was chosen as chief because she's the only one who applied for the job! It seems like, in their town, going into public service is like a suicide attempt. No, it's not as if you'll just need an offshore injury lawyer and everything will be alright. Public officials have become targets of assassinations. According to a news report from Yahoo!:

Public officials have increasingly become the targets of assassination as Mexican cartels try to tighten their grasp on the country. Just this year, 11 Mexican mayors have been slain, including the former mayor of Guadalupe [the town where the lady heads the police force], who was killed in June. In the small town, "police officers and security agents have been killed, some of them beheaded," according to the AFP.

According to García, "[t]he weapons we have are principles and values, which are the best weapons for prevention." If only our officials in the Philippines have that courage to fight off the diseases of the society... We'll pray for you, Ms. Marisol Valles García.