It is scary enough to see so many people being killed across the Philippines in the name of the government-declared war against drugs, but it is worse that not a lot of people seem to be affected by it.
Far worse is that a great number of people – and social media trolls – are actually cheering on the killers.
The argument goes that it is better for the drug pushers and abusers to be killed instead of them killing, raping, or victimizing innocent people.
But is this argument sound or logical? Why should we equate the actual incidents of people being killed wantonly with something that is prospective, or could just be in the mind of someone who is anticipating the worst?
Sure, drug-crazed people are capable of committing heinous crimes, and that is why we have laws, and we have the media. The reason we know that a crime was committed by somebody who was high on some illicit substance is because the culprits were arrested, tried, jailed, or at the very least, that they were being tracked down by the authorities.
That is how it should be. Everyone, including drug users and pushers and even the lowliest of criminals, has the right to be heard, not silenced outright.
In law, that is what we call due process. There is a basic presumption that an accused is innocent until proven guilty. This means that he or she should be heard, and based on the evidence, adjudged guilty or not by a competent judge in a lawful forum.
The police cannot be the accuser, law enforcer and judge at the same time.
Those who say the killings were carried out because the suspect was “nanlaban” or had fought back can go find someone else to believe them. Out of the hundreds killed so far, and given the prevailing climate of fear in the country, a suspect was more likely to have gone down on his knees to plead for mercy, rather than engage the police in a shootout.
In many documented cases, a target never even had the chance to do this, but was killed outright.
One needs listen only once to how the current PNP chief who proudly calls himself “Bato” eggs on his officers to kill or burn down houses of suspected drug dealers to realize that a ruthless killing spree is well on its way to being waged across the land.
As in any such lawless campaigns, many innocent lives have been sacrificed, and bad enough as this is, it is far more abhorrent to see or hear mindless supporters of the killing spree calling this as collateral damage.
Equally galling is being labeled as “yellowtard”, “bitter” or any such denigrating names when one finds the courage to protest against the wanton killings or plead for a return to sanity.
When someone as powerful and generally respected as Senator Leila de Lima is bashed and vilified no end for daring to conduct a probe into this flagrant disregard for our laws, what chance do we ordinary Filipinos have of standing up for what is right and just?
Still, we must speak up. If we sway with the wind or hide in the face of a storm, what would become of our land, our laws and institutions and our people?
We have already taken the path to darkness once, we must resist going that way again.
