No to extrajudicial killings

INTROSPECTIVE By Tony Katigbak (The Philippine Star) | Updated August 10, 2016 -
12:00am
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At our regular village Sunday mass last week, I was listening intently to the parish priests
homily as he discussed the importance of being vigilant about what was happening in the
Philippines. He kept talking about the importance of the Fifth Commandant Thou shall not kill
and how it is relevant to what is happening on a large scale these past few months. I think he was
trying to remind us not to turn a blind eye to the rising numbers of deaths in just the past two
months.
Obviously, many knew that a rise in death toll might come to pass. Those who voted for
President Rodrigo Duterte counted on him and his hard stance against crime and drugs to clean
the streets, as it were, of drug pushers, syndicates, and would-be criminals. And just two months
into office he appears to have kept his word. As they say, change has come indeed. However,
we also have to stop and ask ourselves at what cost?
I have supported President Dutertes stand against criminals. I understand where he is coming
from and we most definitely have to start making sure Filipinos feel safe in the Philippines again.
After all, for too long those who break the law would go by unpunished and as a result more and
more criminals are emboldened to do as they please because they dont fear the repercussions.
There are many aspects of the presidents solution to violence and crime that I can understand
and even support. Placing curfews on teenagers, alcohol consumption, and more are smart
preventive measures.
However, having said all that, I dont believe that shoot to kill is the best way to achieve the
goal of a safer country. When did fighting fire with fire ever actually work in the long run? There
has to be a better middle ground. If the presidents mandate of shoot to kill is followed what we
would end up with are even more vigilantes walking the streets with a convoluted sense of wild
wild west justice. This is not the way to make things safe again. In fact, things might get even
more dangerous.
I understand wanting to clean the streets for our families, but turning a blind eye to what is
happening right now just because we it feel it doesnt apply to us is wrong. It might seem that
way now, but in the end it will come back to haunt us. What happens when one day its someone
we love being wrongly accused and gunned out without a proper trial? Or worse, what if we, or
someone we love, become collateral damage in a random shoot-out? Its not far-fetched
considering the way people are reacting to the presidents mandate.
Just last week, a Party-list congressman in the House called on law enforcers to investigate the
alarming growing rate of extra-judicial killings and prosecute the killers in the governments
ongoing campaign against illegal drugs. After all, killing is just as punishable an offense as drug
use right? One will not stomp out the other. The representative reiterates that the government
cant just stand idly by while unidentified gunman posing as police roam the streets and kill
people with impunity. If we let that go, it will only be a matter of time before it gets completely
out of hand.
Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
In fact, the bloody war on drugs in the country has already made headlines all over the world
on news sites like Time, The New York Times, Daily Mail, and so many more. In the short span
of time that the Duterte administration has proclaimed their war on drugs, over 500 people have
been killed. These pushers or addicts were executed in the name of the war on drugs but
were never given due process or any chance to prove their innocence. In many instances a simple
cardboard sign was placed by the victim with the world Pusher written on it.
Is this what our country has come to? Killing someone and making a claim of their guilt on
cardboard is enough to make it okay? We cant allow this to become the norm. Whats to stop
someone from killing an enemy that may or may not have had anything to do with drugs and just
claiming they are a pusher or an addict after the fact? At that point they wont be able to defend
themselves and it will be too late.
Im sure we all remember the case of pedicab driver Michael Siaron who was shot while looking
for a final fare for the evening on the streets of Manila. After pausing to grab an apple, Siaron
was targeted by gunmen on motorcycles who pumped him full of bullets before riding off. His
wife, who heard the shots, ran to the scene and pushed past the police to cradle her husbands
lifeless body on the asphalt. The photo has been circulating traditional and social media and has
since become a modern day Piet of the Manila slums as eloquently put by The New York
Times.
These people, many of whom are the ones who put Duterte in power because they were
desperate for change, dont always have a voice. We need to help be their voice. We all deserve
justice. I believe that those who are guilty should be punished, however, due process has to be
observed. We need to live in a world governed by law. In fact, over the weekend, Vice President
Leni Robredo also made it clear which side of the fence she is on when it comes to summary
executions. She is grateful that the President has made several statements saying the rule of law
and due process would be honored but she insists that the killings have to stop and enjoins both
the public and the media to help drive this message home.
We all want to live in a safe society. We want to be able to raise our children in a safer world. I
commend the president on his mission to stamp our crime, drugs and violence in the Philippines.
On that note, we are all aligned in wanting a better country. However, there has to be a way to do
this while letting due process and the rule of law prevail. I remember the Latin legal phrase
Fiat iustitia ruat clum, which translates into Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
Fair justice should always prevail, especially when lives are at stake.

Nature
Philippine extrajudicial killings are politically motivated murders committed by government
officers, punished by local and international law or convention. They include assassinations;
deaths due to strafing or indiscriminate firing; massacre; summary execution is done if the victim
becomes passive before the moment of death (i.e., abduction leading to death); assassination
means forthwith or instant killing while massacre is akin to genocide or mass extermination;
thus, killings occurred in many regions or places throughout the Philippines in different times -
136 killings in Southern Tagalog region were recorded by human rights group Karapatan from
2001 to May 19, 2006.[8][9][10]
A forced disappearance (desaparecidos), on the other hand, as form of extrajudicial punishment
is perpetrated by government officers, when any of its public officers abducts an individual, to
vanish from public view, resulting to murder or plain sequestration. The victim is first kidnapped,
then illegally detained in concentration camps, often tortured, and finally executed and the
corpse hidden. In Spanish and Portuguese, "disappeared people" are called desaparecidos, a term
which specifically refers to the mostly South American victims of state terrorism during the
1970s and the 1980s, in particular concerning Operation Condor. In the International Convention
for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, "Enforced disappearance" is
defined in Article 2 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture as "the arrest, detention,
abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or
groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed
by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or
whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the
law."[11][12]
Even if Philippine Republic Act No. 7438[13] provides for the rights of persons arrested, detained,
it does not punish acts of enforced disappearances. Thus, on August 27, Bayan Muna (People
First), Gabriela Women's Party (GWP), and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) filed House Bill 2263 -
An act defining and penalizing the crime of enforced or involuntary disappearance. Sen.
Jinggoy Estrada also filed last June 30, 2007, Senate Bill No. 7 - An Act Penalizing the
Commission of Acts of Torture and Involuntary Disappearance of Persons Arrested, Detained or
Under Custodial Investigation, and Granting Jurisdiction to the Commission on Human Rights to
Conduct Preliminary Investigation for Violation of the Custodial Rights of the Accused,
Amending for this Purpose Sections 2, 3 and 4 of RA 7438, and for Other Purposes. [14][15][16]
Background
Marcos regime
In 1995 10,000 Filipinos won a U.S. class-suit against the Ferdinand Marcos estate. The charges
were filed by victims or their surviving relatives for torture, execution and disappearances.[17]
Human rights groups placed the number of victims of extrajudicial killings under martial law at
1500 and over 800 abductions; Karapatan (a local human rights group's) records show 759
involuntarily disappeared (their bodies never found). Military historian Alfred McCoy in his
book "Closer than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy" and in his speech
"Dark Legacy" cites 3,257 extrajudicial killings, 35,000 torture victims, and 70,000 incarcerated
during the Marcos years.[18][19] The newspaper "Bulatlat" places the number of victims of arbitrary
arrest and detention at 120,000.[20][21][22]
The New People's Army (NPA) groups known as "Sparrow Units" were active in the mid-1980s,
killing government officials, police personnel, military members, and anyone else they targeted
for elimination. They were also part of an NPA operation called "Agaw Armas" (Filipino for
"Stealing Weapons"), where they raided government armories as well as stealing weapons from
slain military and police personnel. A low level civil war with south Muslims, Al-Qaeda
sympathizers and communist insurgents has led to a general break down of law and order. The
Philippines government has promised to curb the killings, but is itself implicated in many of the
killings.[23][24][25]
Since 1975, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was deeply concerned in politics.
Because of the armed conflict, the military continued its campaign versus the New Peoples
Army of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Since 1969 it aimed to establish a
Marxist regime with armed rebellion against the government. On top of all these chaos, left-wing
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were/are critical of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
administration. The members who associated with the CPP and NPA had been targeted as victims
in the spate of political killings. Human Rights Watch investigated extrajudicial murders in the
Philippines in September 2007.[18][26][27]
Three major investigation groups were commissioned and their final reports had been submitted
and published: the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government-appointed bodies: a) Task Force Usig
created by her on August; as a special police body, it was assigned to solve 10 cases of killings; it
claimed having solved 21 cases, by initiating court cases, but only 12 suspects were arrested; b)
the Melo Commission (chaired by Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Melo) with members
National Bureau of Investigation Director Nestor Mantaring, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito
Zuo, Bishop Juan de dios Pueblos, and Nelia Torres Gonzales; its final report states: "There is
no official or sanctioned policy on the part of the military or its civilian superiors to resort to
what other countries euphemistically call alternative proceduresmeaning illegal liquidations.
However, there is certainly evidence pointing the finger of suspicion at some elements and
personalities in the armed forces, in particular General Jovito Palparan, as responsible for an
undetermined number of killings, by allowing, tolerating, and even encouraging the killings."
(Melo Commission report, p. 53),[28] and c) Phillip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur
on Extrajudicial Executions (February 12 to 21, 2007)