‘Kill pa more’

Herbie Gomez

ASSUMING for argument’s sake that the method being used by the Duterte administration in waging its war against the drug menace in the country is acceptable, still, there are no indications it would succeed in rooting the problem out in six months or even six years.

We can make projections using figures. At the rate “drug personalities” are getting killed (an average of 10 people a day since the President assumed office, according to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism), the Duterte administration, by the end of its term, would have succeeded in getting rid of only some 21,900 people or about 0.029 percent of the country’s population of some 100 million.

In its International Drug Control Strategy Report in 2012, the US State Department cited a United Nations (UN) document that disclosed that 2.1 percent of Filipinos, aged 16 to 64 years, were into shabu. Using the 2012 figures from the UN document and the estimated 21,900 “drug personalities” likely to get killed by the end of President Duterte’s six-year term, we can say that the projected number of fatalities would represent only about 1.38 percent of the country’s estimated 2.1-million shabu-using population.  At 10 fatalities a day, 1,825 would likely end up dead after six months. The figure will be insignificant vis-à-vis the 2.1 million.

Point is, in order for this Duterte method to work, they would really need to step up “Oplan Tokhang” to push the number of fatalities up.

Putting myself in the shoes of the morally bankrupt and brainless advocate of extrajudicial killings, I should say: “Kill pa more!”

• •

In just a month, we have seen how cardboards and markers are absolving cold-blooded murderers from any responsibility, and are making the bloodthirsty cry out for more and hail the killings. I worry that the same cardboards and pens would be used on them by their angry neighbors or business rivals. These days, cardboards and pentel pens are enough reason to close murder cases. We’re in dangerous times.

I went over many of the harrowing images of the “salvage” victims. These were small guys in slum streets wearing slippers. They didn’t look like moneyed drug lords to me, and there is really no way for us to determine if they were really into drugs or not.

People just presumed (read: guessed) that they were drug dealers. Why? Because they had dirty nails and feet? Because they were unwashed? What is certain is that these were murders, acts that were clearly against the law.

Almost overnight, the Duterte administration changed one universally accepted principle to “presumed guilty until proven innocent.” It is a shame that many Filipinos approve of it. That is the real tragedy. That there is a public debate on whether or not extrajudicial killings are okay is really appalling. I mean, should people even debate on that? Murder is murder.

By the way, a 91-percent approval rating is not a good argument for human rights violations. It simply means that a significant number of the population are bloodthirsty and are “celebrating” the way some people in other parts of the globle feasted over 9/11 while the rest of the world watched in horror.

Neither is the rhetorical question “What about the victims of crime?” a good argument. Such a question boomerangs on the police and other law enforcement groups. They are supposed to solve criminal cases and bring criminals to justice. That criminals are scot-free means that law enforcers are either lazy or incompetent.

The reason why Mr. Charles Bronson here is bloodthirsty and wants to put the law in his own hands is because there is something wrong with our law enforcement and the other pillars of our criminal justice system. So fix the criminal justice system. That is the problem.

• •

This President has to pause and think first before saying anything, and we need to stop clapping when there is no reason for an applause. So far, we have seen that he has the tendency to speak rapidly and incessantly, chatter inarticulately, and say things he probably doesn’t even mean or has not comprehended. One moment, he highlights the need to uphold human dignity; the next, he mocks human rights. And so, whenever his mouth moves faster than his brain, he says things like “I repeat my repeat… My repeat…” And the bootlickers clapped their hands? Unbelievable.

Pastilan.