CARDBOARD, THE SHAMING DEVICE, TURNED INTO VIRAL NOTE OF PROTEST
THE supreme insult to snuffing out of human life is the cardboard that labels the dead, telling the world of the alleged crime and asking that others won’t emulate him.
Aside from the clearly flawed manner of deciding guilt, with no trial and evidence, and police also acting as executioner, the penalty is death, when laws allow only the maximum of life imprisonment. And many victims were mere couriers or small-time pushers. Big-time drug lords, drug makers and exporters are beyond reach. The police generals and mayors who coddled the drug pushers are beyond reach or are merely scolded, then sent home.
Shout back
The cardboard as shaming device has been used to shout back a message to the killers.
A U.P. Diliman student, Adrienne Onday, wore a cardboard on which she wrote LAHAT TAYO AY POSIBLE DRUG ADDICT ( We could all be drug pushers), travelling from Quezon City to Manila, catching public attention and the message going viral on the web (#Cardboardjustice). Onday said her friend La Salle University professor Hope Swann revised the placard text to publicize primal fear of innocent bystanders being shot down too. But Onday put the message out there.
They were killed without being heard, making others vulnerable to summary execution.
Some might have been killed for personal reasons, piggy-backing on the wave of violence sweeping across the land.