JUSTICE ACCORDING TO DUTERTE

[Memories onDecember 2, 2015 at 6:23pm]

The fish was finally caught in the mouth, this was my initial reaction upon reading in cyberspace Rody Duterte’s recent pronouncement that there were kidnappers he personally wiped off the Earth’s face. It’s because he considers kidnappers as among the dregs of the universe, hence, it is only fitting that in this beautiful blue planet, that sort of co-dwellers should be denied all rights to exist and be ran out of space.

He’s maybe a magical mayor but his mentality regarding his kind of justice is treading on dangerous ground at this age since it’s disregarding standard law on punishment our civilization did establish. I believe Duterte is a chief believer of the-end-justifies-the-means practice but I find it ironic as his name could be found in the Roll of Attorneys, the club of privileged people sworn to adhere to due process.

Of course, I too doff my hat for Rody vis-à-vis his accomplishment in Davao City as far as peace and order are concerned which is rare anywhere else in the country. But then we ask, at what price to pay? Is it justifiable to render justice swiftly by executing summarily the ‘lesser mortals’ amongst us and act and behave like a Deity?

Do we have to be lightning quick in condemning pushers, kidnappers, and hold-uppers, while praising the most evil of all which are no other than the corrupt and plunderers?

Thieves in government do not steal only the taxpayers’ money in the present but also taxpayers’ children’s money and of their children’s children. In short, the effect of leaders’ malfeasance affects three lifetimes of three generations who would live in this world bearing the same burden. Nothing’s more painful and too hard for the mind to endure than to realize that someone else robs your descendants’ future.

When Mayor Duterte confirmed such rumor about him, I feel sad because, for him, kidnappers, street pushers, hold-uppers, and snatchers are the bad people alone. Maybe if he were among those self-righteous Pharisees who condemned and dragged that adulterous woman, Rody would have been the one to cast the first stone (John 8:1-11).

I agree that it’s practically correct to say that we cannot right a wrong by doing another wrong. Murdering murderers doesn’t make one righteous, it just turns him into another murderer along. The late Ferdinand E. Marcos’ administration tried that tack and with a slogan, “Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, Disiplina ang kailangan.” And it only created monsters in the mold of the Corleone clan now known today as a shrewd and undisciplined politician.

But I am definitely not scared if next year’s president-elect would turn out bad. I knew, in the end, “every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).