Amid the relative silence that has met the deadly war against drugs launched by President Duterte since he assumed office on June 30, three female voices have stood to denounce the killings.
“I must admit, the public reaction to these executions is not in favor of those who oppose it. A 91% approval rating for the President and what he stands for is a formidable record. But we cannot base our reactions to these killings on the popularity of the President. Popular or not, MURDERS MUST STOP. S-T-O-P. STOP. Stop the killings now!” neophyte Sen. Leila De Lima said in her first privilege speech.
“There might not be a manifest public outcry, but there is definitely a seething undercurrent of remonstration against the disregard for human life,” she said.
Vice President Leni Robredo, on the other hand, said she understood the government’s campaign against drugs, but she was worried about the campaign’s seeming diminution of the value of human life.
“Right now it’s anyone’s game. For the simplest reasons, people kill. That is what I am worried about, the culture of impunity and violence,” Robredo said.
“I hope my being vocal against [extrajudicial killings] inspires many others to follow suit because there really has to be public outcry. The way I see it, there has been very little public outcry in the recent past,” Robredo said.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno cautioned judges named by Duterte not to surrender to police without an arrest warrant as she warned that “a premature announcement of an informal investigation on allegation of involvement with the drug trade will have the unwarranted effect of rendering the judge veritably useless in discharging his adjudicative role.”
“Thus, this Court has been careful, all too aware that more often than not, a good reputation is the primary badge of credibility and the only legacy that many of our judges can leave behind,” she said.
I’ve never been a fan of De Lima, but I must commend the senator for keeping the opposition alive against the culture of violence and disrespect for the rule of law that the new President has apparently set as policy for the police to push his campaign against illegal drugs.
“Due process has nothing to do with my mouth. There are no proceedings here, no lawyers,” Duterte said in a pre-dawn speech just before naming 159 local officials, judges and policemen he said were involved in the illegal drug trade.
The opposition, if ever there is still one, seems to have decided to keep its silence for now as it tries to gauge the reaction of the people to the about 13-a-day murders perpetrated by the police and vigilantes supposedly in the name of law and order.
Five senators – Franklin Drilon, Grace Poe, Risa Hontiveros, Joel Villanueva and Ralph Recto – at least agreed with De Lima that “due process and the rule of law must be dutifully upheld.”
Hontiveros expressed concern about the naming of the suspects publicly, saying “democracy was never about the President’s absolute power to determine innocence or guilt.”
“The executive cannot blacken the reputation of people and judge them at will. The responsibility falls upon our judicial system. Sadly, the President’s list, while it may be motivated by good intentions, preempts the court’s judgment and tears at the very fabric of our democracy,” she said.
Duterte was obviously emboldened to escalate his “name and shame” policy against all sectors of society that he perceives or was made to believe were engaged in illegal drugs trade after receiving an unprecedented 91-percent popularity rating. He has also threatened to “name and shame” governors, lawmakers, businessmen, rich taxpayers, all without the benefit of due process or even the decency to check the facts before announcing them publicly.
The President’s popularity should not give him a reason to trash the Constitution and pertinent laws in his apparently sincere efforts to combat crime and illegal drugs in the country. After all, we’re still a country governed by laws and democratic ideals where an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and where every individual, both the accuser and the accused, are entitled to due process.
The Chief Executive cannot go around warning people that they will be killed by policemen if they did not surrender – even without arrest warrant. Just recently, he threatened to kill businessmen practicing “endo” or contractualization if they did not stop the practice.
“I’m telling this to you. I’m just issuing a warning. You choose: Stop contractualization or I kill you,” the President said. “You know why? I can utter things like that. I am [the] President. I have immunity. I can summon you. I will shoot you [and order] ‘Bring him to the funeral parlor. You’re making me angry.”
“I will call you here. I’ll slap you one by one. I’m used to that. I really kick people. Believe me. Even policemen in Davao. Nobody was exempted,” he added.
This was the Chief Executive speaking, saying in so many words that as a President immune from suits, he can do what he pleases, including slapping and killing people on the mere suspicion of infraction and without due process. And that’s what worries some people, including De Lima.
“We are already on the slippery slope toward tyranny, without martial law, when we allow one man to be judge, jury and executioner. This is just the start,” De Lima said.
Even North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jung-un, brings people he suspects of disloyalty or other violations to trial before executing them. And North Korea has an authoritarian government, not a democracy like the Philippines.
We do not question Duterte’s sincerity in his desire to combat crime and corruption, but we have to be alarmed by his flagrant disregard for human life, the rule of law and democratic institutions in carrying it out. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.