When will Filipinos learn to be disciplined?

China finally executed through lethal injection the three Filipino so-called “drug mules” Sally Ordinario, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain who were misrepresented by some non-government organizations to the public as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) which is a far cry from the truth. With that behind us, all that is left to do is to pray for the repose of their souls. Death no doubt is final; any hope is totally lost. This is the reason why I changed from my pro-death penalty and is now totally against it. 

However the deaths of Sally Ordinario, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain would be in vain if we Filipinos do not learn from this sad and sorry event, which I thought we already learned with the execution of Flor Contemplacion in Singapore many years ago. No doubt, Filipinos just have very short memories and it must be told to all Filipinos that other nations have stricter laws than ours, especially when it comes to the illicit drug trade.

What Filipinos need to adopt is some form of discipline, something that the Marcos Dictatorship once used as a slogan, “Sa pag-unlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan.” That slogan is true today as it was 30 years ago. Alas just one look at our traffic mess and we only see chaos, no discipline.

Back in 1987, when a group of Cebuano journalists traveled to Singapore upon the invitation of then Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Frank Benedicto, one of the things that we couldn’t help but notice were two parked Singaporean motorcycle speed cops, who had to move their motorcycles to make room for a VIP vehicle. The Singaporean cops put on their helmets and pushed their motorcycles a few yards from where they were parked. Back then, The Freeman editor was Mr. Juanito Jabat and he whispered to me “When will we Filipinos have that kind of discipline?”

This is the story that went to my mind when The Inquirer featured a photo of Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima hitching a ride with a motorcycle cop in order to beat heavy traffic along Ortigas Ave. in order to meet with the President at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). While he may have beaten the traffic, but in the end, the photojournalist caught him in the act of breaking the helmet law. He might as well have turned on his “wang-wang” if he still had one because it’s the same act in breaking the law.

I mentioned Singapore because as the old saying goes, “Singapore is a fine city.” Indeed in Singapore if you throw a cigarette butt or stuck a chewing gum anywhere other than a garbage receptacle, the fine is $500 bucks. The same amount in fines is also exacted at people who spit anywhere.

So back to the question of Mr. Juanito Jabat (who is now publisher of the Freeman) when will we Filipinos ever have discipline? The answer is; we can have discipline if we strictly enforced our laws! A case in point is an ill-disciplined Filipino traveling to the United States and when he drives say in San Francisco, chances are, he’d be the most disciplined person on the road, all because he knows too well that if he gets caught violating traffic, he has to pay a US$300 dollar traffic ticket. Yet when this ill-disciplined person returns home he does not obey our laws and he gets away with murder.

But how can we have discipline in this country when even a fugitive Senator in the person of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson is getting away with a murder case? According to Sen. Ping, he was a “Fugitive from Injustice”. Come now, where was the injustice committed against this former Chief of Police and now a Senator? Being accused or suspected for murder is not injustice. So what was he running away from? It only becomes injustice if and when on the trial, no one could prove his guilt, yet the courts sent him to prison. That did not yet happen in his case, so what was running away from?

If you ask me, the Court of Appeals (CA) were the ones who committed a grave injustice in throwing out Lacson’s case. The fact alone that he did not want to be arrested is already a crime in itself and I fully concur with the observations of Anti-Crime crusader Dante Jimenez that when Sen. Lacson left the country (granted that he did leave the country) he already violated a host of laws and a blatant disrespect for our laws is one of them. Just imagine Sen. Lacson is a lawmaker and yet a lawbreaker!

I fully support Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Leila de Lima’s call to find out who hid the fugitive Senator because in hiding Sen. Lacson, those people obviously broke the law. If Sen. Lacson won’t reveal who they are, then he too is coddling potential lawbreakers, something that we don’t expect that an Honorable member of the Philippine Senate should never do.

Let me say it here, if this country cannot discipline an erring or fugitive Senator, then the Spirit of EDSA is lost on us. Meanwhile the Dacer and Corbito families are still crying for Justice a decade after their double murders were committed.

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