A wishy-washy, weepy government gets no respect from killers

The President did it again! Prevailed upon, no doubt – despite yesterday’s stammering defense from the Palace – by the usual anti-death-penalty groups, which sadly includes the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, the European Union, and other self-styled "pro-life" factions – La Presidenta granted reprieves to 21 Death Row inmates facing imminent execution for heinous crimes.

Those "reprieved" from their appointment with the lethal injection chamber on April 27 and their executions moved to an unannounced later date (perhaps never?) included convicted rapists, murderers, kidnappers and drug traffickers. Sanamagan, Madam. Instead of getting decongested, our death cells have become "retirement" homes. Death Row ought to be renamed Geriatric Row. Those death convicts, the way things are going (the next five years of the Presidency, probably), will die, not of lethal injection, but of old age. If they don’t find some smart lawyers and powerful "connection" to have themselves, after some attrition, gifted with a full pardon.

In sum, the hoary argument continues to be raised that capital punishment has failed in this land, so it ought to be scrapped. How can we say it has failed? The way we look at it, capital punishment has never been tried. Somehow or other, the murderous criminal underworld knows, almost everybody who commits heinous acts, manages to get off the hook.

I once brought this matter up to somebody very close to the President – and it can be suspected it reflects her own thinking. The Cabinet official exclaimed that the "death penalty" isn’t really necessary, because those who’re condemned to our smelly, dirty, dinghy, horribly overcrowded prisons, are suffering "a life worse than death!"

And he bragged about that? We are thus confronted in this Administration with two shameful realities: (A) The non-implementation of Capital Punishment with regard to those, who, after years of court litigation, are finally sentenced to death from terrible crimes: and (B) a disgraceful prisons and "correctional" system in which men, women and children (mere teenage kids) are crammed into foul cells, ill-fed, exposed to debilitating and fatal disease, humiliated and treated like trash. No wonder those who survive these "hells" on earth, when regurgitated into the outside world, emerge even more prone to violence and crime, completely hardened and depraved. Young boys, thrown in with villainous adults, are set on the path to self-destruction and the destruction of others.

To boast that life in jail in our country is worse than death in the execution chamber is disgusting. This is hardly the way to "a strong Republic", but instead betrays a complete ignorance of what res publica entails.

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As for the Death Penalty, it’s nice of the pious preachers of Holy Mother Church (even the late Holy Father, the sainted John Paul II was against capital punishment) to say that every life must be preserved ("Father forgive them," our Lord had said on the Cross, "for they know not what they do."); or the Human Rightists to wail; or the Europeans in their own cozy societies to insist that the death penalty is barbarism. (With murder and violence escalating in their streets, some of the latter countries are re-examining their positions). But in our land, we are faced with a growing tsunami of violent crime, and "murder with impunity", which must be countered with strong measures.

In embattled societies, it is only the lex talionis of the Biblical "an eye for an eye" that can prevail. Otherwise, it will be the barbarians who overwhelm us.

I submit that, in a "compassionate" society, or one with pretentions to it, somebody else’s murder or homicide can be tolerated by generous hearts, but never a death in one’s own family. If your family has never been victimized, then it’s wonderful to "forgive" and forget. If death strikes into the heart of your own family, takes away one of your loved ones, it may not be so easy to do so.

We Filipinos are one family – and the violence which stalks our land strikes at our very heart. It’s time to stop being wishy-washy, and look the killers and hoodlums in the eye, and say: "Stop, or you’re dead!" This is not happening. It’s the reverse instead. The hoodlums win, the good guys go to the cemetery.

How can we go on like this? The hoary but specious argument keeps being advanced that only the "poor" go to Death Row, while the wealthy and influential beat the law, no matter their crime, and never get condemned to death. If this is the flaw in our justice system, we must fix it – but not by letting the "poor" who commit heinous crime escape just punishment, too. Everybody who’s guilty must be punished. "Crime does not pay" may sound like a bromide ante-dating the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover, but it’s the only message a government must send – and implement.

The Chinese have an ancient saying – they’ve a saying for everything – which avers: "You kill the chicken to scare the monkey." This is not being done by our government, burdened as we already are by a turtle-paced and corrupt justice system, and by a faint-hearted leadership. Thus, nobody is afraid of being punished for wrongdoing. The chickens and monkeys are "safe." It’s the people who’re dying.

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It’s always been evident that Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo T. Reyes dislikes the media, but we don’t resent that fact. He’s been on the receiving end of much media criticism, and barbed attack. Yet he must realize by now this goes with the turf. When you’re in the public eye, in public service, you’ll have to accept it. There used to be an expression, "grin and bear it," but this is asking for too much. The "grin" is not necessary.

What possessed Reyes to complain that the killings of journalists are getting too much attention, while the deaths of soldiers and cops are less publicized, is, however, mystifying. Of course every death is deplored, it’s only that journalists fulfill a function which is high-profile in every society, and are both unarmed and vulnerable. Soldiers and cops embrace the profession of arms, they fight and die nobly for our nation – but it’s their job, one in which they enlisted of their own free will. We grieve equally for those who fall. But comparing the deaths of one group with the other is ridiculous.

Reyes also sneers that the murders of some journalists may have had nothing to do with their profession. This is both unfair and insulting. It’s a scattergun statement delivered without evidence. It smacks of the process: "First you kill someone; then you kill his reputation."

It’s well known, from long experience, that Angie Reyes suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. What’s dangerous about his remarks is the fact that he’s the Secretary of Interior, thereby the "boss" of most of our law enforcement agencies, particularly the Police. His uncalled for statements pit the police – who’re supposed to head off or solve crime – against media-persons. Being a former general, he’s dragged the military, as well, into the comparison. This will never do. I know what Reyes will do. He’ll say he was misunderstood or misquoted.

In any event, talk is cheap – even though harmful. What matters is results. Get those killers, assassins, murderers and ambushers, Secretary Reyes! That’s all we ask.

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It had a talk with Philippine National Police Chief, Director-General Arturo C. Lomibao yesterday before he left for Indonesia to attend the regional conference of police chiefs in Bali. The scene of the Bali Bombings, no longer the Paradise Isle it used to be, I guess, is a pertinent site in which to discuss police problems and the fight against terrorism.

Until Lomibao returns on Friday, Police Deputy Director General Ricardo "Dick" de Leon will be in charge. Now you know the pecking order in the PNP as of the moment.

Lomibao said that the PNP is solving the cases of slain journalists at a "modestly efficient rate."

Here’s the score, as I got it from the follow-up report he had the PNP "fax" me:

Of the 60 cases of journalists killed since 1986, a total 32 cases have been filed in court against the suspected killers, and under the parameters of the PNP the identification of suspects and filing of charges in court the police claim this already constitutes solution of the case. That is how it works under the country’s criminal justice system where law enforcement is just one of the five pillars of the entire system – the others being the prosecution, the courts, corrections, and the community.

In the investigation of all these cases, the police have taken 39 suspects into custody. The cases filed in court have resulted in five convictions involving eight killers now serving sentence.

• Nicomedes Fabro, Francisco Dimalanta, Amado Alcala, convicted for the killing of Dionisio Joaquin of Olongapo News on April 12, 1987;

• Gerry Sarabia, serving a 17-20 year sentence at the San Ramon Penal Colony for the May 25, 1992 killing of Nesimo Paulin Toling of Panguil Bay Monitor in Ozamis City;

• Jose Espinelli alias Danny, convicted killer of DZMM deskman Alberto Berbon in Imus, Cavite on Dec. 15, 1999;

• Elias Bravo and Lucio Beating, suspected NPA Sparrow hitmen convicted for the February 1998 killing of Atty. Odillon Mallari of DXCP General Santos City; and

• Gerardo Tocana, sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Frank Palma of Bombo-Radyo on April 25, 1999 in Bacolod City.

In 2004, the PNP "solved" 12 of the 13 reported cases of journalists being killed. And since January 2005 until today, the PNP has already "solved" three of the four cases of murdered newsmen, among them, the Feb. 28 shooting of Arnulfo Villanueva in Naic, Cavite; the March 24 assassination of Marlene Esperat in Tacurong City; and the most recent shooting of publisher Philip Agustin in Dingalan, Aurora last May 10. What remains to be "solved" is the May 4 shooting of Klein Cantoneros in Dipolog City, and investigators express confidence that a major breakthrough is underway.

Mind you, the statistics above-mentioned were provided me by the PNP.

What must be said is that Lomibao has demonstrated himself, from the start, a hands-on police chief. He has personally supervised the investigations into not just the cases of slain newsmen or media individuals, but of the murders of former Pasig Congressman Henry Lanot, Ambassador Alicia Ramos, Dr. Nicolo Echiverri, and Mayor Leon Arcillas of Sta. Rosa City, Laguna. He was on the scene within a few hours of each murder.

The PNP, on the other hand, has still much to do. There are still 28 unsolved cases of slain journalists. These, however, include the killing of our friend (we covered the Vietnam war together), prize-winning photographer Willy Vicoy, whose poignant photo of a Vietnamese refugee made the covers of NEWSWEEK and TIME magazine simultaneously. After years of covering the Vietnam conflict without mishap, Willy was slain in an ambush of a military convoy by the New People’s Army in Cagayan in 1986, along with fellow newsman Pete Mabazza. Five other journalists were killed in similar instances of ambush and crossfire with the NPA, as well as during the 1989 RAM-SFP-YOU "coup" attempt. Those cases may never be solved, since rebel action not deliberate assassination was entailed, yet they must still be investigated.

We’re at war: a war against crime and terrorism. It’s sounds corny, but it’s still true. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. And this includes the "freedom from fear" of which the late American President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke when he enunciated the Four Freedoms.