Still a shame game
Imok Rupinta thought it was a stroke of genius. Tired of being accused of not contributing to the fight against illegal drugs (he and other Ermita barangay officials were slapped with a sixmonth suspension by the Ombudsman in January this year for failing to assist the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency during a raid), the seaside village head started posting drug-free signs on selected houses in his barangay.
The idea of posting signs on houses as a tool in the war on drugs is, of course, not original. Similar campaigns had been waged in the past, the most recent undertaken by a barangay captain in Lapulapu and wholeheartedly indorsed by the city’s mayor. But Rupinta took the opposite route; instead of shaming the occupants by labeling their houses as drug dens, he sought to motivate Ermita’s dwellers to stop being into drugs so they coild earn his painted badge of approval.
That was the general idea, promote a culture of competition for the barangay captain’s version of the seal of good house-keeping. Ermita’s positive” approach drew popular support, including one from the unlikeliest source. Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has no love lost for Rupinta, a former staunch ally who defected to the enemy, but there he was, urging the other village chiefs in the city to follow Rupinta’s lead and launch their own house-painting or postering campaigns.
Osmeña, of course, couldn’t resist a dig -- that wouldn’t have been like him -- and said he doubted Rupinta’s sincerity in suddenly portraying himself as opposed to illegal drugs but I don’t think he was speaking with a forked tongue when told the other barangay captains to adopt the Ermita experiment.
Ermita is known (notorious?) for being a haven for drug pushers and dealers. Maybe, the reputation is well-deserved and if you’re the barangay’s number one citizen, that label, true or false, stings. And if you’re Rupinta who, if his enemies are to be believed, was, by his inaction, primarily responsible for the unabated proliferation of drugs in his area, the unwanted tag stings even more painfully.
It is in this light that his postering campaign should be viewed. Rupinta is a politician. His dominance of barangay politics is unchallenged. A few years ago, when he made known his intention to return to being barangay captain, the incumbent, Tony Flores, promptly stepped aside and ran for councilor instead.
As in other places in the country where power resides in only one man, Rupinta’s political supremacy in Ermita is built on his acceptability to all, or at least an overwhelming majority of all the residents, regardless of age, gender and occupation, whether lawful or unlawful. The late Rep. Ramon Durano was reputed to have said that politics is a game of the devil. I am not sure if the attribution is accurate but the quote is.
I think Rupinta genuinely dislikes the drugs trade and wants his barangay to shed off the embarrassing drugs haven tag. But instead of directly confronting the users, pushers, dealers and other players and in the process lose their support, he’s doing it safely by “clearing” those he know to have kicked the habit or abandoned the industry through posters or tarpaulin signs hung on their homes.
But it’s still a “shame campaign” only that it is done in reverse. The “house of illegal drugs” label condemns not directly but by implication. Inclusio unius est exclusio alterius, a Latin legal maxim says. The inclusion of one excludes the others not in the list.
The Commission on Human Rights said so and Rupinta listened. He has stopped his labeling campaign. If other barangay captains plan on heeding Osmena’s exhortation to follow what Rupinta did, they have to know that this time, they will be doing it on their own. The template has been withdrawn.