The list redux

Cong Corrales . 

THE police here is kind of antsy these days.

Police officials now understand the horrors and paranoia that comes with dealing with the prospect that they could be in a supposed kill list circulating from within their own ranks.

This comes at the heels of an exposé of a former city police director in Northern Mindanao. The source claimed that the daring daylight ambush on Supt. Michael John Deloso was the handiwork of a shadowy group that is executing a kill list of superintendents suspected of being involved in criminal activities. Digong Dada called this kind of police officers as “ninja cops.”

The source added that there are at least two more police superintendents in the list of suspected ninja cops targeted for extrajudicial killing or to be politically correct, serial murders.

On one hand, police officials are denying there is such a list. On the other hand, they are not taking chances either. As one official puts it: “Duna gani uban nga gabaton nag security escort kay delikado baya mapagkamalan ka.”

The official even goes on to call the liquidation of supposed ninja cops as “very unlawful and barbaric.”

I don’t mean to gloat when I say that these are the things that we have been telling the police with their Badac lists of drug personalities. How sure are you that the person who drew up that list included you just out of spite or jealous of how your career has been going?

The official also said that a position in government does not give one the right to trample on the law. Correct, sir. No one should be above the law, even law enforcers should not be above the law.

Now, this officer is on the side of law and order. He said: “Let everyone be heard in a court rather than take shortcuts.”

Well, boo-freaking-hoo, sir. Were the 22 thousand drug suspects who were killed on mere suspicion heard by a court of law? The answer to that is an echoing “no.” Most of them were killed inside their homes while sleeping.

Please don’t start with that pro-forma reason that they tried to shoot it out with the arresting cops. That’s just lazy, not to mention, lousy police work. It is ridiculous to think that the 15-or-so drug suspects killed all used caliber .38 revolvers, had a grenade, and worse, had no money in their pockets except for the buy-bust cash? C’mon, sirs. You can do better than that.

At least, now that you are relatively on the same rut as the drug personalities, I think you’d be more discerning in waging Digong Dada’s “war on drugs.” Let these drug suspects have their day in court.

If there’s anything the police should learn from all of these is that shortcuts, such as kill lists, in law enforcement is untenable.

Any workable list needs a minimum of three items. It doesn’t need due process, supporting evidence or any modicum of rule of law. These three items, by the way, is a workable list. A list of things which we direly need in government right now.