That was a good decision not to burn the computers of 51 video-karera slot machines confiscated by the Dagupan City police.
 
It has been the practice of the police to burn whatever it has confiscated – marijuana, slot machines, etc.
 
But on Thursday morning, the city police, led by Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima and Supt. Edgar Basbas, dismantled the machines and removed the computers inside. Then,  they angrily bashed the computers to pieces.
 
The machines’ boxes are easy to dispose of. They are made of wood and can easily be used as firewood especially during these times when cooking gas are way above the reach of the poor people.
 
“We will just give the wood to poor residents,” Basbas said.
 
But what do they with the computers? These surely have toxic materials. I heard somewhere that computers have mini gold particles. But “mining” these may not be worth it because the gold are so minuscule. And they do have toxic things that could be hazardous to health if the “mining” procedure is not properly done. Worse,  the machines will continue to pose threat to health if these are not disposed of properly.
 
For sure, the city police will just dump these bashed computers in the city’s dumping sites, wherever these are. 
 
But I hope that while they cleanse the city of illegal machines like video-karera slot machines, they will also be responsible enough in disposing of the already useless machines.