In review and in prospect
Recall this. Use of state-sanctioned vigilantes became prevalent during the regime of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos who, in 1984, deployed plain-clothed police personnel in public buses and jeepneys with orders to shoot criminals on sight. Dubbed “secret martials” these gunmen were a drastic measure supposedly to curb rampant criminality back then. More than 50 suspected criminals were killed in just one month over which this police approach was in effect. More recently in 2006, then Cebu Roman Catholic Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal endorsed the deployment of secret marshals under similar premises in Metropolitan Cebu City which at the time was being wracked by a crime wave.
As layer upon layer of instances of failure in law enforcement pile up and as Filipinos’ already meagre faith in their country’s criminal justice system further erodes, the case for vigilantism gets stronger as the public grows restless. Reports of Mexican drug cartel operations making inroads into the Philippines are not helping considering that Mexico has itself reportedly “essentially legalized” vigilantism…
The government said it had reached an agreement with vigilante leaders to incorporate the armed civilian groups into old and largely forgotten quasi-military units called the Rural Defense Corps. Vigilante groups estimate their numbers at 20,000 men under arms.
But that is Mexico. The difference is that, in the Philippines, it is key officers of the government itself that are regarded by the public as the very crooks that need to be subject to this ancient form of justice. Indeed, unlike Mexico, in the Philippines, the biggest stakes as far as the amount of money involved, involves not drugs but discretionary government funds used by officials to buy and sell political favours — which means that, in the Philippines, the biggest crooks by far are not drug lords and terrorists, but Senators and Presidents on account of their having a direct hand in this massive institutionalised thievery.
It is the worst form of national criminality — one where the crooks themselves are the very people whose duty it is to catch crooks and prevent crooked activity. It does not really take a rocket scientist to figure out why none of the Philippines’ big issues ever get convincingly resolved.
Last week's blog posts
“Hunger strikes” are so Last Century
December 11, 2023 by benign0
"It certainly didn’t help De Lima or, for that matter, the later former Senator and 'national hero' Ninoy Aquino himself who had, since the 1980s been the inspiration of illustrious copycats."
The trouble with the Dutertes are the Dutertards
December 7, 2023 by benign0
"People interpret the slide of the Dutertes back 'down under' from where they came from as one of a deliberate demolition by today’s powers-that-be. The reality is likely to be less dramatic. The Dutertes are mere collateral damage..."
CPP-NPA should be held to account for war crimes as a condition to any “amnesty”!
December 6, 2023 by benign0
"History repeats itself yet again as the current administration of President Bongbong Marcos goes down a path the CPP-NPA had long hoped a Philippine government would tread — one that leads to the same sort of trap that killed Absalon..."