Extraordinary solutions against crime

Batas Mauricio

AS far as I am concerned, criticisms and bitter comments about jail inmates being ordered to strip naked preparatory to a search by law enforcement authorities constitute much ado about nothing.

These are indeed extraordinary and truly dangerous times, what with illegal drugs continuing to proliferate despite a fierce and deadly campaign by the government, and crime and corruption still going on unabated almost everywhere, despite the declared abhorrence against them by the leader of this country.

That being the case, extraordinary solutions–such as inmates being stripped of their clothes, among others–needed to be employed, not only to impress upon everyone the seriousness of the government’s campaign, but more to produce results. Otherwise, our country and our people would continue to suffer in the hands of drug syndicates, drugs lords, and drug addicts, as well as through the machinations of criminals and corrupt officials in their midst.

Indeed, the Philippines and all Filipinos witnessed a flourishing of illegal drugs, crime and corruption under a system of flawed democracy and judicial processes stacked in favor of criminals and shameless corrupt government functionaries, because of too much concern for due process and human rights.

We cannot deny that Filipinos suffered greatly and terribly under past administrations which either expressly or impliedly permitted illegal drugs, crime and corruption on account of financial considerations, or were simply too naïve to believe that the current legal and judicial systems could still work to stem this country’s downslide to perdition.

The time has come to change all these, and I sincerely believe that this time is now, under the current leadership. I maybe perceived as someone who advocates a system of dictatorship or strong-arm tactics, but what the country and our people need now is a system that instills fear and deterrence among criminals and corrupt personalities, inhibiting them from committing further atrocities against hapless Filipinos.

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The truth is that Filipinos and the foreigners living with them at this point have become lawless. They may refuse to admit it but almost all of our countrymen and others who are here no longer fear and respect God, in much the same way that they no longer fear and respect their parents, their elders, and government authorities.

We are now selfishly concerned about our own welfare alone, and the welfare of our close relatives, nothing else. We have acquired the mindset of greedy persons, doing all we can to get everything for ourselves alone, even if in doing so we trample upon and violate the rights of others around us. All our maneuvers are now geared towards acquiring wealth, even illegal ones, even if we steal, rob, and destroy the country and our people.

Against this kind of a Filipino or a foreigner who managed to acquire Filipino citizenship, our current legal and judicial processes are no match, and are simply inutile. We can only deal with them, and make them pay for their misdeeds, by extraordinary means, along the system that has been put in place in the country since June 30, 2016.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com