Thursday, July 9, 2009

Birds of the same feather are buried together


MASS GRAVE. Laud Quarry in Ma-a, Davao City where, according to an ex-DDS member, cadavers of the vigilante victims were buried. (Photo courtesy of Toto Lozano)

8 comments:

  1. Great blog! I admire your insights (especially for someone so young) and more importantly, your courage for speaking out what many Davaoeños think but are afraid to say for fear of joining those buried in the Laud Mass Graves. I salute you.

    I regret to say that I do not have the same courage to post my name, but allow me to share my own views about the Davaoeños' twisted sense of peace, order, and justice.

    Majority of the Davaeños take pride in our city’s “peace and order”. Otherwise they wouldn’t have voted for the same person over and over again. You were right in saying that many silently rejoice over the news of an alleged drug pusher (no matter how young or how low in the drug trade ladder) gunned down by motorcycle-riding men. One less criminal to worry about. But the MURDER of this criminal will somehow just hover over our heads, barely unreachable by our conscious minds. It's so sad.

    Now others might say, "How about those hardened criminals who do immediate and actual harm to other people, like a murderer, for example? Isn’t a summary execution justified here? What would we say to the mother whose five-year-old daughter has been raped and murdered?"

    To answer that, I would like to quote a line from The Practice:

    "I would say, if it were my daughter, I’d like to kill whoever did it myself. And if I ever came face-to-face with the guy, I couldn’t guarantee any of you that I wouldn’t kill him. But if I did, it would be wrong. And for the State to kill reflectively, absent emotion, on ceremony, it is not right. And if I might add, one of the biggest problems we have today— our children are being raised in a culture that not only condones revenge, but perhaps even celebrates it as a societal good. It’s wrong."

    Wow. It is one thing for a grieving parent to kill out of rage and vengeance. But for the State to kill, reflectively, absent emotion, on ceremony, and in the case of Davao, without due process, where perhaps only one man gets to decide who lives and who dies, it is very, very wrong.

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  2. But the killings would be a good example to other would be criminals.

    -Job

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  3. But not to the criminals who kill the criminals.

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  4. Anonymous 1,
    Thanks for your well thought of comment. Re-posting it, so that others could read it, too.

    Job,
    But, as Anonymous 1 said, it is not right.

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  5. It is not right? C'mon. Think of it @ Silence Kills. I am want the criminals to be killed rather than to let them go out again in the streets and commit another crime and victimize another innocent lives. Do you want them to victimize another innocent lives? We all know that our system is not that good in getting them.

    Btw, I want them to be killed not because of revenge. I want them to be killed for the betterment of our society. :D

    -Job

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  6. Job,

    Yes, it's not right because killing them would only incite false hopes of impunity in others. Killing these criminals by illegal and criminal means would only send a wrong message to others: That crime does not pay.

    If we know that our system is, as you put it, "not good good in getting them," should we instead make some measures we know could further destroy our system?

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  7. @Silence Kills

    But that would take time. Our local government has little or no control to it and the national level is not doing good at improving our system. Criminals (including minors) would just take advantage to our crappy system.

    This is not just about improving some crappy system. This is about saving more lives and putting order in our society.

    Try to imagine if the vigilante group in Davao was not around. Other criminals would be encouraged and will take advantage.

    -Job

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  8. @Job

    "Saving more lives and putting order in our society" are indeed plausible goals that every government must aspire to.

    But the govt must ensure that the means it used in achieving those goals are lawful because the means is as important as the end.

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