‘Katok-Hangyo’

Cong Corrales

THIS is what I was afraid of–an all-out purge without regard to the five pillars of our criminal justice system. It’s a rag-tag national conglomeration of modern-day zealots interpreting and executing a generally vague police directive pronounced by a charismatically cussing President on live primetime television, about a fortnight ago.

Just Sunday night, a drug personality was killed in Barangay 34 here by still unidentified self-styled crusading anti-drug vigilantes. My problem with summary executions is that one can never really know if those killed were because they’re dealing drugs or they are just meant to silence certain people who know about the local drug syndicate network operating in the city. Now, if only we had some sort of a process to effectively know–like due process.

For those who dont know what I’m talking about, I’ll put you up to speed.

A week ago, village chairs and the city’s finest have started going around town knocking on doors where they ostensibly “advise” the residents to cease and desist from doing or dealing drugs. If you see nothing wrong with this the “Katok-Hangyo”(knock-plead) with the process I just described to you then please don’t read on.

The problem I have with this gestapo crap is that it reeks with malicious bias against the urban poor community–and their main source of information on the supposed drug personalities is a list concocted by the now famous Badac (Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council). Have you heard of this council before the “drug purge” started?

A police inspector asked on live radio said the Badac list is presumably legit because it includes the religious sector in the community (read: local grapevine).

So far, there have been 54 killed, 4,312 arrested “drug personalities.” The quotations marks are there for purpose. Why? It is because in all these killings, arrests, and the nisnomer “surrenders” are from depressed and densely populated areas of our city.

Here in our city, the statistics are more chilling. My readings tell me there have been 25 drug personalities killed in five days. That’s five summary executions every day. Where were these five sad sacs lived when they were neutralized? They lived in squalor, hardly a place for a drug lord to maintain a million-peso business and a network of foot soldiers.

I remember posting a challenge to the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office on my Facebook wall: Would Kagay-an’s finest (read: cops) dare conduct “Tok-hang” at Xavier Estates, Golden Village, Pueblo de Oro, and other gated communities in the city?

Real drug lords–at least in documentaries on the illegal drug trade I’ve seen–are natural high rollers. Their cribs are sick and secure as hell.

Now, the top brass at Camp Vicente Alagar declared they will be included big and exclusive subdivisions in the city in their Oplan Tok-hang. He admitted that they suspect the bulk of the drug dealing are conducted in these gated communities. Well and good, sir.

However, he admits they are having a hard time doing and will have to coordinated with the subdivisions’ developers and homeowners associations. Why do you think that is?

They show this apprehension when it comes to gated communities but would not even blink in conducting Oplan Tok-hang in the slums? Are they afraid of the queue of lawyers of the residents in gated communities suing them?

A police officer telling you to stop doing drugs in front of covering media, neighbors, and other kibitzers at your doorstep is definitely more than unjustly accusing a person. With only a Badac list in tow, Kagay-an’s finest will most probably be inviting a deluge of human rights violation cases against them. So good luck to the well-intentioned police officers when they retire and try to get their pensions.

If I can put it in the vernacular, delikado mangayabo ilang kaldero. Pfft.