Even Ping didn’t suspect EJKs
SO this is what candidate Rodrigo Duterte meant when he said he would eradicate crime and illegal drugs in three to six months – summary killings by police and vigilante-style executions.
Sen. Ping Lacson, a former national police chief, said ridding society of crime and drugs in six months couldn’t be done. Of course he didn’t know what methods of eradication would be used – extrajudicial killings (EJK). If police go out expressly to kill suspects and not to arrest, in my book that’s EJK.
The killings will continue until the people say “Enough!”
But for now many people seem paralyzed in fear. They didn’t expect the new government to be this coldblooded.
Even Cabinet secretaries haven’t let out a squeak. They’re like the three monkeys who hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil. Their silence over the goings-on for the past several weeks is an ominous sign.
The usually noisy activists from the Left have also lost their tongues. If these killings had happened during the past administrations, they would have been out in the streets from Day One. But where are they today?
The senior politicians, from the Senate president to the noisy senators who were quick to investigate every controversy in town before, have all been mute. (Why didn’t I mention the House speaker? Why do you think?)
Sens. Koko Pimentel and Alan Cayetano who, earlier in their careers, made their names for being guardians of the law, have gone over to the side that justifies extrajudicial killings. I used to like Cayetano but now I just feel sorry for him.
The moralists in our midst have also gone on Mute mode. Recently, PPCRV’s Henrietta de Villa, former ambassador to the Vatican, was present when Duterte spoke to her PPCRV colleagues and was cursing all over the place. Didn’t that make her uncomfortable? Or has she also accepted this kind of behavior as the new normal?
Senior business leaders, who used to be vocal about government policy and actions, are also silent over extrajudicial action by the police and vigilantes. Well, what can you expect from business? All that business craves is law and order so they can go about their business undisturbed by social ferment.
I have reservations about the Catholic Church’s stand on some issues but to the credit of its senior officials, they’ve been speaking out against Duterte’s foul mouth and the extrajudicial killings from the beginning. I think the Church and its flock will be key players in the coming months.
Some in the media, too, have been voicing their concerns and dissent.
But, sad to say, most people have been quiet. Unfortunately for the country, there are many Filipinos who aren’t bothered by “abstract” notions like civil rights, due process, and appropriate social behavior.
As a people, we’ve not reached the level of discernment and maturity to appreciate that everybody in society has rights (and responsibilities, of course). We’re not yet at the point where we value and respect each individual’s right to due process.
Mr. Duterte’s defenders say activists value criminals’ rights more than those of victims. They misread critics’ concerns.
Everybody – victim and criminal – has rights. Suspected criminals will have to pay for their crimes. But their culpability will have to be decided by judicial authorities, not trigger-happy policemen.
Surely there are Filipinos of mature intellect and social conscience out there. Surely there are many out there who are scandalized by all the unlawful action by police and vigilantes whose patrons are unknown.
They’re just silent for now.