The Manila Times

What will Duterte boast of next, that he eats criminals’ hearts?

- BY RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO COLUMNIST

ARodrigo Duterte was bound to happen in the kind of society that we have.

What has brought him about, or has acceler monster of Frankenste­inian proportion­s in

incompeten­ce and apathy toward the poor of a Benigno S. Aquino regime. Yes, none other than this – they who never curse but quietly send their enemies to jail.

outrage against the ruling elite, their huge disappoint­ment that the anything to their lives through the

are what poor hacienda tenants and underpaid shopping mall sales clerks have kept buried in their chests and would have loved to spit out in their masters’ faces.

The lower classes – those who have to commute by jeepneys and are, thus, prone to holdups, or whose hard- earned cash is snatched in some dark alley as they walk home from work – are the most helpless victims of street criminals. If your meager, hardearned income were snatched away by a pickpocket, wouldn’t you wish that criminal shot dead immediatel­y, without going through the time- consuming, expensive, due process of law? That is exactly what

However, in any other civilized seeks the presidency would immediatel­y get a good kick in the ass out the door, laughed at, or thrown into an asylum, except, of course, in an ISIS state if he happens to volunteer to kill criminals himself according to – again that cliché – but it’s so true, can an admitted killer of humans be allowed to run for the presidency.

- ward into barbarism, from the dark clutches of which it took centuries for humanity to extricate itself.

He even relishes telling the tale of his savagery in his willingnes­s to execute criminals himself, as though mocking justice that he can’t be taken to court for he only gives criminals the punishment they deserve. He boasted in a presidenti­al debate: “ qualify for the presidency if you’re afraid to kill.] I hope he only meant killing criminals, not his political enemies. Who, in our crime-ridden society where the legal system is slow and expensive, wouldn’t take notice of and be impressed by someone who promises to kill for them (suspected) criminals wherever they are found?

kill-them-myself campaign line is a a country where life is cheap (a hit reportedly could be contracted for time deeply valued in a dominantly Catholic nation.

are described in whispers in towns and urban neighborho­ods as the red-eyed ones ( or the nearly untranslat­able “

Even if a killing could transforme­d himself into a different, indescriba­ble category of human being, unable to sleep at night and beyond the mercy of the Holy Church.

Universal horror

Indeed, there is universal horror in the taking of a human life. Even medieval executione­rs wore masks to hide their faces and a blank bullet - - let that killed the man. Even in the high-tech lethal-injection system, there are two levers, one of which is fake, that release the poison into the takes down his next criminal.

Natural Born Killers, and Quentin Tarantino movies portraying homicide and murder as a thrill reserved for the bold. Exploding brains hit by a bullet, blood gushing out as a samurai sword slashes a torso, arms ripped off by a grenade explosion – these have become the images representi­ng what we may call kill-porn in this age.

In our minds we know, of course, it’s all about celluloid imagery – with the use of materials such as realistic- looking fake blood, or high-tech computer imaging techniques for effect, and we are bound to see more of the bad guys getting in their next movies.

The horror of killing and death is bourgeois admirers who have never ventured out of their gated villages, never saw the real world. Try as hard as you can, you cannot conjure up a real person dying from a bullet wound in front of you being a criminal. It is just mysterious that life is being snuffed out; there is even an element of childlike innocence in the pose of an alleged hardenedcr­iminal shot by the police and lying bloodied on the street, strangely often in a fetal position.

Now, please think hard: do we really look forward to the metropolis’s Attractive as it might seem, there is no city anywhere in the world that has gotten rid of crime because of a in the movies.

Civilizati­on has gone a long, long way in inventing the principle of the rule-of-law with its twin, due process. Both almost miraculous­ly appeared in medieval England, designed initially to check the power of kings over nobles. What is miraculous about it is that it is not derived from any religious teaching. There is no 11th commandmen­t, “Be sure to apply due- process in determinin­g who violated the above commandmen­ts.”

The rule-of-law principle isn’t just an idea some goody-goody idealist invented. It is part of our cultural evolution that has helped us develop and grow. Humanity has learned that the eye- for- an- eye principle ends up producing a kingdom of the blind, with a one-eyed jack as king. against criminals – the ISIS beheadings and hangings.

From just 16 countries in 1977, or in practice the death penalty, with only 37 retaining it in practice. And by death penalty, we mean undertaken only after a rigorous legal process. This is humanity progressin­g, embracing the belief of the transcende­ntal value of a human life.

Yet, this arrogant mayor is telling the nation that he himself will kill criminals where they stand, and for And many people, even those educated in Christian schools, want him to our country?

Opportunis­tic Davao businessme­n

big businessme­n – the banana kings, property developers, former cement millers who are throwing their money into his campaign – and especially the spoiled brat Alan Cayetano, desperate to be in the game even if no party wanted him, million to convince him to run for - start, but I guess a huge retirement kitty, especially if one has some

to the hilt. By killing criminals, and not waiting for the legal system to - tributed to making the city attractive businessme­n have surely sealed partnershi­ps) and to consumers (who bought their products).

But what is left after they’ve be- corpses of (suspected) criminals? away from the scene? Has the in been strengthen­ed? But of course, as they would just return to their

Cavite used to be known as a bandits’ lair in the 1950s, and powerful warlord- politician­s had tried the in the province? No, what did it was the province’s economic growth, spurred by the establishm­ent of export processing zones.

labels even pinned on “salvaged” alleged drug- distributo­rs’ corpses saying, “I was a drug-dealer, do not emulate me.”

Lim himself saw it didn’t work, and abandoned it. Crime remains alleged criminals had not been summarily killed, but because it’s economy has not grown to keep pace it had two decades ago.

think that the present group of criminals, even a generation of criminals, if all eliminated at one time would prevent new criminals from emerging? The solution to rampant crime is not rampant police force implementi­ng the rule system, and most importantl­y, an economy rich and egalitaria­n enough to minimize those choosing the way of crime.

that he doesn’t know of any other kill-criminal tack is new and can be applied effectivel­y anywhere. is essentiall­y vigilantis­m, which had plagued nearly all countries in the periods when the rule-of-law institutio­ns were still being formed.

It has not succeeded anywhere it was tried, relegated as the horror chapters of nations’ histories, the relatively recent cases being the Black Shadow of El Salvador, the City with - sia, the Bakassi Boys of Nigeria, Los killing of street children by military we really want the metropolis to be in this rogues’ gallery?

two snake- oil merchants of this election, the charlatans, selling fake miracle cures, like eradicatin­g crime in six months -- which is another Singapore in a year.

They are the two sides of the - ing herself as the daughter of the criminals where they stand. Both are and they want Filipinos to join them in their delusions.

Both are appealing to the basest, most juvenile instincts of the Filipi infantile notions of a hero of myth people’s reptilian brains to produce the hormones for rage -- so evident media of those criticizin­g him.

and saw through her acting of madeup roles. Filipinos will get tired of and the highest level of discourse he is capable of, and boasting that corpses of criminals on the street will solve crimes.

The problem with rabble-rousers is they can only maintain their audience if they raise their shock values, in contrast to somebody in rational discourse who would just give more and more rational arguments.

if he boasts of something like: “I have eaten and will eat criminals’ hearts, ripped from their chests.”

 ??  ?? Duterte with his tool of discourse, and internatio­nal coverage of his governance style
Duterte with his tool of discourse, and internatio­nal coverage of his governance style
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