Pubdate: Sat, 30 Jul 2016
Source: Sunstar Davao (Philippines)
Column: Fil-Choy
Copyright: 2016 Sunstar
Contact:  http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1991
Note:  also listed for feedback
Author: Tyrone Velez

THE BAD AND THE UGLY IN RODY'S WAR

A FRIEND from my college years now based in Cagayan de Oro messaged 
me for help. His activist friend working in an LGU was surprised to 
find his name included in a list of suspected drug lords.

He vouches that his friend is clean and is a victim of false 
information made by the mayor's political rivals.

This message comes at a time when we are seeing distressing news on 
President Duterte's war on drugs and crime. At first, news of drug 
users and peddlers surrendering en masse, the relief of top ranking 
police chiefs for alleged protecting of drug lords and the cleanup of 
Bilibid were reasons to cheer.

But then, this was has turned deathly serious. A college student in 
Manila was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was riding a 
tricycle home when a suspected drug pusher also took the ride, and 
was chased down by vigilantes who got shot dead and the student was 
shot as well.

There has been quite a number victims of circumstances and mistaken 
identity. We have to stop cheering and ponder, is this how we want 
things to be?

Don't take this as an anti-Duterte rant. Let's be clear that crime 
and drugs are an enemy to the people. But the thing is, can we stop 
people from taking the law into their own hands or making shortcuts 
to the law? This is what human rights lawyer Edre Olalia of the 
National Union of Peoples' Lawyers is asking. He understands the 
frustrations of the public of a justice system that plays double 
standards on the poor by favoring the rich. But the casualty on the 
shortcuts to stopping crime is the life of innocent people. "One 
innocent life who is summarily killed is one innocent life too many," 
says Olalia.

Duterte and police authorities have said these summary executions are 
not part of their campaign against crime, and may have been committed 
by syndicates themselves who want to cover their tracks. We give that 
the benefit of a doubt.

But there is one lesson coming from Davao City's handling of this 
spate of killings that the nation has to understand, and that is the 
citizens' vigilance to address this issue of crime. When summary 
killings hit Davao City years ago, movements from lawyers, academe, 
women and children's groups and activists urged then Mayor Duterte to 
stop this killings, and asked him to let the institutions work for a 
better approach that is called restorative or corrective justice.

Indeed, the city government and various groups then have worked for 
the rehabilitation of drug dependents, children in conflict with the 
law and families victimized by crimes or summary killings. The key 
here is citizens do their part with vigilance to take of their 
communities' welfare, and not turn the reign to the vigilantism of a 
shady few. This experience also shows that Duterte is not a messiah, 
but is part of the bigger solution that needs our participation.

Let's pray for vigilance that can stop this madness as early as now, 
before we lose friends and family.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom