Extrajudicial Killings: An eye for an eye makes the world go blind!

I want to live in a place where I can safely stroll along beach shores while watching a beautiful sunset. I want to live in a place where I do not have to worry about getting home safely at ungodly hours of the night. I want to live in a place where safety in the underlying character that emanates from it. I want to be safe in my own country. But never at the expense of others.

I have always believed in justice. I’ve learned that the rules are present for a reason and laws exist for the benefit of the majority.  That is why it has been extremely appalling to read all these articles about alleged extra judicial killings in the south, most particularly in Davao.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a typical Filipino with typical patriotic dreams. I want the best for my nation; I want the best for my countrymen. I want to live in the country that our national heroes have laid their lives for. I also have the same vision that they have – peace, justice, solidarity and freedom. Like any typical Filipino, this coming election, I would vote for the best, others would say lesser evil, candidate that has solid platforms for economic growth and development, impeccable public records and of course, the tenacity to do what needs to be done. And like any other Filipino, I would like to have the next president do it in a right way: rule of law.

The rule of law, as Wikipedia defines it, is the legal principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials. Take note: arbitrary, meaning randomly or a personal whim. Reading the articles about Davao Death Squads and making sense of the reports from the Human Rights Watch organization, it seems that the leaders of the region arbitrarily decided upon these alleged killings, which, at the writing of this article had reached a statistic or more than a thousand.  The issue became even hotter than it is already is when the chief executive of the region admitted his direct links to these mass vigilantes.

Strangely, he even admitted publicly that if he won this year’s upcoming presidential race, he would execute a hundred thousand more criminals.  To make the country safer perhaps? To lessen crime rates and violence? He in fact boasted that Davao has become of the world’s safest cities to live in simply through killing all criminals.

I don’t know with this logic but, if ever he really wins the elections, how would he handle other problems that the nation faces?

To eradicate poverty – kill the poor.

To boost economic – work your ass out.

To be beautiful – eliminate the ugly

To have efficient transportation – let every one buy their own car.

To end hunger –destroy the hungry

And the list goes on.

Sure, he has the tenacity to get things done. Unarguably, his bulwark improved a lot from compared to when he first came to power. No on can question that. I am not questioning the capacity; I am concerned about his methods, particularly those which surpasses the rule of law. We are a nation that sticks to the notion that no one is above the law. Well, in this case, some one is.

If we want a nation that has strong foundations, then we should elect a leader that makes the rule of law the skeletal framework to build the nation from. Applying the premise of the rule of law with the extra judicial killings, alleged drug pushers of dealers should have been properly arrested, tried and punished according to the severity of the crime. In layman’s term, alleged criminals, should have been arrested upon solid evidence, tried in court with the proper procedure and hearings and if proven guilty of a crime, then sentenced to years in prison. That is how the rule of law works.