Of Death Squads and Morality

Am I a moral person? Would I condone wrongdoing? Would I commit wrongdoing?

Not very hard questions to answer, but let me do it in a roundabout way. I was born and raised a Catholic, still practicing my faith, goes to church almost every Sunday. Raising my kids the same way. Teaching them the basic tenets of the Bible, of Jesus, of God. Unfortunately, I am but human, so the saying goes. I abhor sin, and yet I commit them. I don’t exactly kill, or steal, yet if we are to take the literal and technical qualifications of what a sin is, then yes, I am a sinner. I try not to, but there are times when the needs of the flesh overpowers the teachings of God. And I am old enough, mature enough, and sensible enough to admit it. I try to live a virtuous life though – I don’t cheat on my wife, I do not steal, I work hard and earn my wages, I earn my wages honestly, I raise my kids in an environment of respect.

With that out of the way, let us ask – would I take it against President Duterte if indeed he has ordered death squads to kill people? And the answer is a simple yes. Yes, it is wrong. Yes, he should have his day in court to answer these allegations. Yes, it does not matter if they were criminals. Nobody has the right to do that. Nobody. But then, let us take things into perspective. And there is so much to discuss if we are to take the recently revived issue of the death squads. First, if you are to object against the possibility of Duterte masterminding the death squads, surely you will object to people concluding he is guilty. Everybody should have their day in court. Let there be a trial after his term. After all, we allowed Aquino to complete his term despite suspecting that he had a hand in the massacre of the SAF 44 personnel. That he illegally used the Presidential funds. Second, surely if there was a modicum of truth in here, Leila De Lima, when in power as Justice Secretary, would already have filed cases against him. After all, she defied even the United Nations when she jailed Gloria Arroyo. She did a hatchet job on Supreme Court head Corona, and if people do not realize it by now, that is not an easy thing to do. Corona, knowing and understanding the law, was not an easy opponent. Especially if he is innocent (and he was). So Duterte would be relatively easy pickings. But no, she couldn’t get anything on him, and all accusations were dismissed. Third, look at the timing of this revelation – just as DeLima is about to be arrested, just as people are clamoring for the electoral protest of Marcos to push through, just as revelations about the fighting inside the Liberal Party is being revealed, just as another bombshell about Robredo is about to be revealed. Wag the dog, is what comes to mind. Now as to who is wagging which dog, maybe we will never know.

Does this justify the death squads? No. But nothing will justify riding in tandem killers, which have been in existence for maybe thirty years now. Nothing will justify the abuse of children, whether committed by pedophiles or priests. Nothing will justify drug dealing, no matter how poor or desperate you are. Nothing will justify the massacre of farmers, especially when they are just begging for food. Nothing will justify employing people to till lands for a pitiful wage. Nothing will justify allowing your citizens to live like animals, to wake up to the barbarity of life. And nothing will justify the theft of the country’s money, instead of spending it on taking people out of poverty. You cry for justice for the people murdered by the death squads, why don’t we scream with the same intensity for the murder of those journalists and civilians, as up to now, their killers have not been meted out the punishment they deserve? Let us be one in condemning EVERYTHING that is wrong in our country, and not one to serve a political purpose. Rigoberto Tiglao is right – we are a weak country, making us useless in fighting corruption and standing up for what is right.

And finally, I ask myself – in the shoes of Rodrigo Duterte, would I do the same? I do not know. Perhaps. Perhaps not. But with this rage inside my heart, this frustration at how fractured our culture is, how we can allow a few enterprising criminals to steal our money, to break our laws, to reduce our citizenship to a silenced one, to abuse and exploit our poor countrymen, to allow such blatant disregard of our basic rights, and then to turn on AGAINST each other, then maybe, yes. Maybe we Filipinos need a good dose of discipline. But maybe we just need exposure as to how the world is – once we see that we do not have to suffer like this, then we will be one in deciding what really is good for us. There is hope, as I see a lot of Filipinos voicing out and supporting the changes, of being tired of the old ways. But it will not last – Rodrigo Duterte must show concrete, lasting changes, or the persistence of the people lusting for the power they lost might just pull through. So yes, we should continue to support this man, the only reason why there is hope for our country. But we should keep in mind that questions about the death squad must be answered – as all questions about all wrongdoings must be answered. Including Leila de Lima, Leni Robredo, and Aquino.

This piece was submitted to us by Richard Saldonido - a native of Batangas City who now lives in England with his wife Liza and their three kids. Richard graduated from UPLB with a degree in Biology and used to work at Jollibee as part of a team building restaurants outside the Philippines. At present, Richard does contract work for automotive companies, the most notable of which is McLaren, where they produce supercars. Richard has his own blogsite. Click above image to link.