Kill lists

IF THERE'S one thing we ought to know by now is that this administration is spectacularly bad at making lists.

Remember Digong Dada’s list of judges, mayors, police officials who were supposedly involved in the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country? To help you jog up your memory, he presented the list of more than 150 names to media last Aug. 7. The list included a judge who has been dead since 2008.

Let’s not forget Digong Dada’s drug matrices. He had the Marawi drug matrix and the matrix on the drug network operating in the country. Among those named in the top rung of that matrix were Peter Co, Peter Lim, and Herbert Colangco.

These lords, except for Colangco, will be exonerated. The country’s very own Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II chalked it up to “weak evidence.” Even the self-confessed drug trafficker Kerwin Espinosa was also off the hook. Yes, the guy who testified in front of the senators that he made at least P40 million to P50 million a year dealing drugs.

What does their exoneration tell us? It confirms our suspicion that Digong Dada’s war on drugs is really just a killing spree of those who are in the lowest rung of the drug syndicate ladder while those on top enjoy the “assumption of innocence until proven otherwise.”

Currently pegged at the tens of thousands, if that’s not a killing spree I don’t know what is. Let’s use this administration’s list of killings lest I’ll be branded as a purveyor of “fake news.”

In the Presidential Communications Operations Office’s accomplishment report, under the section “fight against drugs,” some 3,967 people were killed in anti-drugs operations and 16,355 homicide cases under investigation from July 2016 to Sept. 30 last year. That’s 20,322 persons killed.

With that disappointing denouement of the drug list, Aguirre submits yet another list  — a list of people the government wants to be branded as “terrorists.”

Filed Feb. 21 before the Regional Trial Court Branch 19 in Manila, Aguirre submitted a 55-page petition, 21 pages of which consists of the actual list of names. The petition seeks to have the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army declared as “terrorist and outlawed organizations, associations and/or group of persons” under the Human Security Act of 2007.

Like their drug list before, this administration has also listed people who have long departed this realm (read: dead). In a Bulatlat.com report, at least eight persons in the list have long been dead while two others have been missing for years.

It even listed Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples in the list of supposed Maoist groups. This administration sure has a weird way of cozying up to the International Criminal Court, huh?

Why should this list be relevant to us, here, in Mindanao? Well, it should be because of the 657 people listed, some 364 are from Mindanao. Here’s the scary part, of the 364 people listed, some 162 names are aliases. Let that sink in for awhile.

Anybody and I mean anybody who unfortunately falls from grace with Digong Dada could just as easily be branded as one of those 162 aliases in the list.

Mindanews quoted Lt. Col. Emmanuel Garcia, chief of the Public Affairs Office of the Armed Forces as estimating the strength of the NPA, as of last year, at 3,700 armed guerrillas.

It would be safe to assume that Aguirre lists the “brains” of the so-called terrorist movement in the Philippines with 3,700-foot soldier strong to carry out its terrorist acts. Then, why haven’t we witnessed at least one “terrorist attack” each week since this administration started? One would think that many “brains” could have expelled this administration by now.

This list, like all the other lists of this administration in the past, is nothing but another veritable kill list. This administration’s lust for blood wasn’t sated enough with the ongoing killing spree under the pretext of a drug war, it has now created another kill list. Pfft.

The Lorax

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”  -Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

I THINK the worst by-product of impunity is apathy. Unfortunately, I see it happening to our country down to the most basic unit of government.

Too many politicians, persons-in-authority, and government workers get away with the most atrocious attacks on basic human rights that people have become bitter, jaded and worse, apathetic.

I have had way too many depressing conversations with people who have espoused the why-should-I-care attitude to life. There are also people who think that as long as things do not affect them directly, it’s none of their business.

For instance, a friend asked: “If politicians get away with contract killings of rival politicians or steal from the public coffers, why should I be punished for the petty infractions I commit?” By the way, I have translated and rephrased my friend as the original quote was in the dialect and peppered with expletives.

I hear neighbors bark back at their transistor radios and TVs every time a news of a picket or rally is aired. At first, this reaction boggled my mind because I have lived the better part of my life in an urban poor community. I thought my neighbors, of all people, would understand the expressed rage of the people in the picket lines or rallies. These guys get the flack because they are fighting for higher wages, lower cost of living, and government transparency and accountability? I couldn’t wrap my head around that.

Yet, news of thieving, philandering, and genocidal politicians being outed for their crimes would not elicit the same response.

They would simply respond by saying that nothing will come out of the investigations. I certainly cannot blame them for this kind of response. When you’ve seen a number of crooked politicians waltz their way in and out of courthouses, you’d pretty much be jaded yourself.

As in the street slang: “Nothing can happen this.” I have never really grown accustomed to this type of response.

This phenomenon is also prevalent in the blogosphere, especially on social media platforms. The anonymity on the Internet has emboldened netizens with a double dose of the impunity-apathy phenomenon. And why not? If crooks who have been named in investigations can get away easily, how easy can you get away with trolling and inciting physical harm to other netizens?

Like my neighbors, there are netizens who feel their silence on the growing enmity in the blogosphere will not affect them as long as they stick to be in the middle.

However, democracy and governance, whether these be in the real or virtual society, is not a spectator sport. Everything is connected and everybody should participate.

Being a citizen does not end with voting. The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections will push through this May. I enjoin you, my dear readers, not just turn up at the polling precincts blind.

Look, an apathetic response to cases of impunity is lazy. Impunity will never stop for as long as you stay jaded. Get involved in your community so you can have a truly independent and intelligent choice in leaders in the future.

I realize, of course, this is a big task to tackle. Why don’t we start small? Let’s start with our families, communities, and then eventually the society at large.