EDITORIAL - Cop-out

To accompany a news report yesterday, the ANC repeatedly replayed its video footage of Davao City Vice Mayor Sara Duterte beating up sheriff Abe Andres while he was restrained by her bodyguards. When Andres managed to break free and walk away, he was dragged back by the bodyguards, and Duterte pulled the sheriff’s hair as he bowed his head.

That was no boxing match; it was a public official and her bodyguards ganging up on a defenseless agent of the judiciary and beating him up for enforcing a court order that a judge refused to withdraw. What got the vice mayor’s goat? Andres had an attitude problem: he obeyed the order of the judge rather than the mayor in evicting squatters.

An attitude problem is not a crime. What constitutes a crime is inflicting physical injury, except under certain circumstances such as self-defense. In this case, it was Andres who was in need of self-defense, but was clearly unable to fight back. Unless he leaves the city of the Dutertes, he is unlikely to have the nerve to fight back in any way. This is why the Department of the Interior and Local Government should not expect a formal complaint from Andres, unless it is willing to give him protection from the mayor and her bodyguards.

Invoking the absence of a complaint, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said disciplinary sanctions could not be imposed by the DILG on Duterte. Robredo initially tried to wash his hands of the mess, saying the national organization of sheriffs had already filed a complaint against Duterte with the Office of the Ombudsman. But this is a cop-out, and reinforces perceptions that the Aquino administration is no different from previous ones in coddling wrongdoing if it involves political allies.

The people of Davao City can always re-elect their beloved mayor and her doting father. This shouldn’t stop the DILG from doing its duty of imposing discipline on local government executives. If it fails in its duty and looks the other way in the face of abuse of power, public officials who get away with treating people like punching bags are likely to do it again. And they will inspire their kindred spirits, who are occupying positions of power, to do the same. These are the seeds of impunity and the government of daang matuwid should not be sowing them.