HUMAN RIGHTS
Judicial Killings
1.) The Philippines has gone a long way, or has it? So-called progress carries within itself
social ills that, if not addressed judiciously and with the right measures, will in the end,
only destroy the people it meant to serve. Any civilized society must be able to craft a
web of safety nets to assist those who have abused the spoils of progress to re-build
themselves and become productive citizens once again. Every citizen has inalienable
human rights enshrined and safeguarded by the constitution. Even a criminal possesses
inalienable human rights and they must be respected and protected by government. A
civilized society must be mature enough from its core to be able to deal with threats to its
way of life with fairness and justice. There is no short cut to justice.
2.) Illegal drugs, criminality and corruption are only some of the social ills of our society and
of many societies around the world. And they must concern everyone. They have
destroyed many lives and have deeply damaged the moral fibre of our society. And they
will continue to wreak havoc on our individual and national lives if we acted as if they
did not exist. And ergo, we as a people must act with resolve to address the root cause/s
of such problems and to stop such menace from disrupting, to say the least, our very way
of life.
3.) That being said, we need also to be very clear as to what means are we going to use to
address such problems. Braggadocio or grandstanding is not one of them. Scare tactics
will also get us nowhere. A culture-of-death mentality is just as dangerous as the very
problems we are trying to confront. A challenge to a shoot-out is also counterproductive.
Let us take a very hard look, an honest to goodness look of our society and try to
discover, and once discovered, own what ails it and commit to finding ways and means
on how we can best address our common problems.
4.) What we have been seeing the last few months happening everyday in our country is
absolutely alarming. The parade of shoot-outs everyday makes decent person coils in
shame of what has become of us as a people. Every single life lost is one too many. LIFE
IS PRECIOUS! Why all of a sudden, every single day. news reports are peppered with
multiple deaths of alleged drug pushers and users?
5.) The spate of killings in the country makes it appear that it is so easy to take someone
elses life. It is absolutely clear to a keen observer that those who have been killed so far
were from the poor segment of Philippine society.
6.) Same thing with those who were apprehended and those who voluntarily surrendered.
These are the people who did not have the wherewithal to defend and protect themselves.
They absolutely have no chance of winning in any court of law. Is a sachet of illegal drug
reason enough to take away someones life? While it is tragic to see people lose their
lives to drugs, it is just as tragic to witness how these vulnerable and powerless people
are treated by law-enforcers with impunity.
7.) Have we tried to find the root cause of why people go into drugs, especially the poor?
Could it be because of poverty? In the spate of Killings, arrests and surrenders that
happened so far, it is clear that the people involved were from the low-income bracket of
society. No report has come out yet involving those from the middle class up, from the
private, gated, guarded and exclusive villages. I wonder why! And when alleged
protectors of drug lords or a drug lord himself are named, they are accorded all the
courtesy and protection from the powers-that-be or even merit an audience with the
president! This is sad, no, in fact, it is tragic for it only shows without mistake that there
is double-talk and double standard in our judicial system.
8.) Equally alarming like the spate of killings is the deafening silence of our people and our
institutions. And we take pride in saying we are a Catholic country! Where have our
Christian Catholic values gone? Is Philippine society going to the dogs?
9.) Let us wake up, otherwise one day we will wake up and the most precious things in life
that we fought so hard for to have are gone and we only have ourselves to blame. There
are so many subtexts to what is unfolding before us now in the country and we all have
the responsibility to be vigilant and to not allow our freedom and security subverted or
raped by anyone, not even by our own elected president.
10.) In the end, what are we really trying to achieve? Peace? Unity? Progress? We may
have the best intentions. But as what Shakespeare said Best intentions pave the way to
hell. For when all these killings are done, what would remain are but grief and the loss
of our dignity as children of God.