The killing fields
THE “killing fields” are a number of sites in Cambodia where more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, part of a state-sponsored genocide targeting Cambodian Christians and the Buddhist monkhood as well as other ethnic groups. The Duterte adminstration’s drug war has resulted in the killing of 12,000+ drug suspects as reported in the Human Rights Watch “World Report 2018” released last January. While the numbers are far apart, and Cambodia’s killing fields were mostly in forests while those in the Philippines are mostly in slum areas, the Philippine killings arise from a state-directed “war on drugs.” Numbers too do not matter because a single death of an innocent should make us all call for justice and a stop to the killings.
The Duterte adminstration’s war on drugs set aside the internationally accepted approach of rehabilitation, community support, and poverty alleviation in favor of a punitive one. True, the barangays were asked to compile lists of drug dependents, many of whom willingly reported to the barangay offices. But when the killings started, suspicions were raised that the policeman used these lists to target the victims. The killings also seemed to focus on the poor, many of whom took drugs to escape from the reality of poverty and then engaged in small-time trade to fund their addiction. A rehabilitation program with livelihood opportunites and family and community involvement would have transformed them to productive citizens. It would have taken time but the effort would have been worth it. The Duterte adminstration seems to want things done fast; kill them, problem solved? The results show addicts and small drug dealers killed; where are the big guys who smuggle the huge bundles from China?
We witness the killings of three Catholic priests recently. Their deaths are nothing new as through the years, priests and missionaries stationed in the far-flung areas working not just for an spiritual upliftment of their flock but also for their material progress have been killed. Business interests in an area encroaching on tribal territory want to eliminate them. Rightist groups suspecting them of links to the New Peoples Army and other democratic groups want to get rid of them. But these killings happen usually once in a year and that is what makes the recent killings disturbing; three in a matter of months and in urbanized areas.
The killings of two mayors in a space of two days with one during a flag ceremony makes it 40 mayors killed during the first two years of the Duterte adminstration. Immediately the motive of being drug-related was prominently mentioned as President Duterte had, on a number of occasions, read a list of mayors involved in drugs, a number of whom got killed afterward. These events, especially that in one instance where the police security was removed, has struck fear in many of the local government officials. Regretfully it has given rise to speculations – are these related to the forthcoming elections next year, telegraphing the message: Be with us or you’re dead?
What is very disturbing is that all these killings came after President Duterte’s tirades against drug addicts and dealers, against the Catholic Church and even their God, and against local government officials (mayors and barangay chairmen). Was he giving an order to his minions or is this the same as the case of St. Thomas Becket, where King Henry II exclaimed. “Who will get rid of this troublesone priest” and his four knights rode off to do the dastardly deed. Some may see similarities as after President Duterte’s verbal attacks on Chief Justice Sereno, six justices testified against her in the congressional impeachment hearings, did not Inhibit from the Quo Warranto case, and voted to oust her and three are now contenders for the chief justice position.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque has suggested all these are being done to make the President look BAD. He could be correct as the President’s statement on the “tambays” was not to bring them to dentention cells but to tell them to go home and, if they do not follow, to bring them to “Pasig,” meaning to him in Malacañang. The police overreacted as many do when they are trying to curry the President’s favor. But if Sec. Roque is correct, this must be a formidable group able to get expert sharpshooters using sophisticated weapons to assasinate the mayor of Tanauan. I think these are the conspirators the Duterte adminstration should track down, not the imagined Church bishops and priests.
But to avoid giving opportunites for these groups, why does not President Duterte stop his tirades and insults and expletives in his speeches. With his high approval ratings, a vast number of Filipinos are waiting for him to be the inspiration so they can make the country better. Mr. President, inspire us!