Birds of the same feather won't catch each other

Now this one’s really De Lima’s dilemma:

In the September 6 episode of “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa,” where Mayor Rody Duterte sometimes settles scores with his enemies, Mayor Duterte urged the Commission on Human Rights to come back and investigate the resurgence of killings in the streets.

“Wala na ko mogunit sa pagkasupervisor sa DCPO [Davao City Police Office],” Duterte said. “Though my resignation was not accepted, I told them that I consider myself resigned. Sukad sa CHR [Commission on Human Rights] inquiry, wala na ko misulod sa DCPO. Pero natingala ko ngano man padayon gihapon ang patay?”

On March 30, 2009, the CHR conducted a highly publicized public inquiry into the killings in Davao City that have gone unabated since 1998. Leila De Lima, the CHR’s feisty chairperson, squarely put the blame on Mayor Duterte’s shoulders for his failure to stop the killings, if not for aiding the criminals.

Ostensibly to give the CHR a free hand in its inquiry, Mayor Duterte resigned as a supervisor of the DCPO on March 31. His resignation, however, was rejected by DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno, saying it’s against the mandate of the law.

Now five months after the CHR started the public inquiry, it seems Mayor Duterte is laying the blame at the foot of CHR Chair Leila De Lima.

In August alone, there were 13 people killed; in September, five. Mayor Duterte asked the CHR to explain the killings. Surely somebody else is responsible for them, and it certainly not him, contrary to the allegations, because he has already given up control over the police.

“Mangutana ko karon, ngano man padayon lang gihapon ang patay?” Duterte asked. “Is there somebody behind it? Is there somebody trying to create a chaotic condition? Is there somebody who wants to pain a picture of Davao City as killing fields?

“I leave it to the CHR to please come back to Davao City and investigate more. I’d like the human rights to come back and tell us what is this all about?”

It’s clever of him to say those words because it effectively cast the CHR in a bad light. It’s as if Mayor Duterte is saying that the commission made a wrong decision by asking him to distance himself from the police, from whose ranks the DDS gunmen allegedly come. It’s as if he’s saying that the commission should let him do his own thing because it’s the only way to deal with the city’s criminality. Otherwise, the situation just might go berserk.

Yet Mayor Duterte’s remarks have only highlighted an anomaly in his administration. The City Mayor’s Office has at its disposal a P450 million budget for Peace and Order. Of this amount, the mayor can disburse as much as 1.2 million daily if needed. “Whith this enormous sum of public funds given to…the city mayor to maintain peace and order in the community,” said Mindanao Daily Mirror columnist Bert Tesorero, “there is no reason why street killings would go unabated for almost a decade now without a single case solved by the police.”

The police cannot be accused of ineptitude, either.

There is probably one reason why the police find it hard to stamp out the killings. According to the report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, “You Can Die Anytime,” most members of the DDS are policemen, ex-policemen, rebel returnees, military personnel, and jobless youths who were involved “in a bit of drug pushing.”

“The DDS…,” it further noted, “is run by handlers. Such a handler is called the amo (boss). The amo is usually a policeman or ex-policeman, and in some cases, a barangay official…A local journalist, who has been investigating extrajudicial killings in Davao City for almost ten years, believed that all handlers report to the police precinct commander in their area who distributes money for “operations” and reports, in turn, to an official in the city government—‘the big boss.’”

Despite these damning revelations, police and military officers denied that they are by no means involved in the killings.

If, however, the police are involved in the killings, as claimed by the Human Rights Watch, then how can we expect them to get after the criminals if the criminals themselves come from their own ranks?

Overfunded but Underperforming?

According to Mindanao Daily Mirror columnist Bert Tesorero:

One of the key points the CHR is visibly trying to dig deeper into relative to the failure of the local authorities to solve and stop extra judicial killings that had dragged on for almost a decade in Davao City is the tremendous amount of peace and order fund of the city mayor’s office which enjoys a P450 million yearly allocation for peace and order where the city mayor may disburse as much as P1.2 million every day as the need arises. Thus with this enormous sum of public funds given to the disposal of the city mayor to maintain peace and order in the community, there is no reason why street killings would go unabated for almost a decade now with-out a single case solved by the police.

A demolition job

Why is it that local government officials are heaping obstacles on the way of Leila de Lima, the feisty Chair of Commission on Human Rights?

The recent one is the legal suit filed against her by Jonathan Balo, the inmate who led de Lima and company to the quarry site where victims of the Davao Death Squad were buried. The site where the police found human remains is located just behind the Firing Range owned by a retired policeman.

This Inquirer editorial hazards an answer:

A demolition job it truly is—a criminal complaint that alleges an official gave an order, without any proof, and imputes guilt based on hearsay (if even that). It also assumes that the series of events as narrated in the affidavit, assuming the report is accurate, can only have one possible meaning. In fact, and considering the circumstances, we must not immediately rule out the possibility that some of those police officers mentioned in the affidavit were part of an elaborate set-up.

The Balo turnaround should be seen in this spectral light, as the black propaganda Nograles says it is. The reason: the identification of the possible site of a mass grave means the CHR is getting closer to the masterminds of the Death Squad.

Obama grateful to GMA. For what?

US President Barack Obama, the ABS-CBN News Online reports, is grateful to GMA because "of the strong voice that the Philippines has provided in dealing with issues in Asia, ranging from the human rights violations that have too long existed in Burma, to the problems that we're seeing with respect to nuclear proliferation in North Korea."

Nice. But what about the killing of journalists, which have taken place under her administration? What about the extrajudicial killings in Davao City where her former adviser on peace and order, Rodrigo Duterte, is mayor?

And what about the human rights violations that, according to the Commission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima, "have escalated since she [GMA] took office."

What President Obama should ask GMA?

When GMA delivered her ninth SONA, a decidedly score-settling speech, she said that she would be meeting with US President Barack Obama, and emphasised that it was the latter who invited her.

I have accepted the invitation of President Obama to be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet him at the White House, later this week.

That he sought out the Philippines testifies to our strong and deep ties. High on our agenda will be peace and security issues. Terrorism: how to meet it, how to end it, how to address its roots in injustice or prejudice—and first and always how to protect lives.

We will discuss nuclear non-proliferation. The Philippines will chair the review of the nuclear weapons non-proliferation Treaty in New York in May 2010. The success of the talks will be a major diplomatic achievement for us.

There is a range of other issues we will discuss, including the global challenge of climate change, especially the threat to countries with long coastlines. And there is the global recession, its worse impact on poor people, and the options that can spare them from the worst.

But it may be very well if President Obama should ask GMA if she is "still taking advice from her former consultant on security and public order, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City," argues Elaine Pearson, of Human Rights Watch.

'For the State to kill reflectively, absent emotion, on ceremony, it is not right'

Below is a comment from someone who refuses to identify him/herself, but gives his/her thoughts nonetheless on the madness in the city. I'm re-posting it for others to see.

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.

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)