Mob anger

Cong Corrales

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring (Gandalf’s Advice)

LAST week, the city was overwhelmed with anger when the Balinado house on JR Borja St. near Burgos St. was burglarized. Thirty-year-old graduating education student Cherrymae Dayo was allegedly raped, and then stabbed. Dayo managed to run outside the house to call for help but later died in the hospital. The main suspect, Warren Amarga, 24, admitted to stabbing Dayo to the chest but denied having raped her.

Within minutes after the police announced that they have arrested five suspects hours after the crime was committed, a mob started to form outside the police station in Divisoria. A radio reporter asked one of the kibitzers outside what he hoped to accomplish by joining the mob outside the police station. The kibitzer answered he wanted to punch or at least scratch the face of one of the suspects.

Meanwhile, local social media groups overflowed with angry posts. Most posts wanted death to the suspects. They want the recently approved Death Penalty Bill (House Bill 4727) to be applied on the five suspects.

First, death penalty cannot be applied on the suspects yet since it is still a bill (read: proposed law)–senators have yet to vote on it. Second, the members of the Lower House, in all their “wisdom,” only arrived at a consensus after the House Speaker removed the heinous crimes of rape and plunder in the list of offenses punishable by death. HB 4727, should it pass the bi-cameral session, will only cover drugelated offenses.

That’s the problem with most netizens these days. They read less than their comments. Perhaps, these “righteous” people should direct their anger at our congressmen who were among the majority in the Lower House to delist rape in their Death Penalty Bill.

Some asked why the human rights advocates, specifically the Commission on Human Rights, were silent. That rhetorical question is really dumb. This argument, if you call it that, has been going around social media since the start of President Digong Dada’s campaign last year. The CHR is not a law enforcement body.

It bothers me that in this supposed information age, many netizens choose ignorance.

Look, I understand anger. What I don’t understand is why there was no public outburst of anger in the Jamaca case or the Fernandez case? Is it because the suspects in these cases involved were police officers? Where was the people’s “righteous” anger then?

I agree that whoever raped and killed Dayo should be punished with the full force of the law. Such crime was incorrigible. However, if the mob insists that these five suspects should be killed and that their anger is “righteous,” I dare them to go to the police station now. Go and grab the gun of the officer-in-charge, and pull the trigger to kill the suspects even before their guilt could be established in court. Go put a hole in each of the suspect’s head.

Go ahead, make Cocpo’s day.