Harsh response

Late the other night at a small wet market or talipapa in Parañaque, I chanced upon itinerant vendors selling various types of used smartphones and tablets displayed on a bilao – the quicker to pack up and flee in case lawmen came sniffing around.

The gadgets, some of them in protective cases, included Samsungs priced at just a tenth of the brand-new. I inspected one; it bore several text messages, from a child to the mother who owned the phone.

I wondered if the poor owner of the phone was killed or wounded by the robber, because I’m pretty sure the gadgets were stolen. It was approaching midnight and there were no cops around whom I could alert about the hot items. But in the city of Manila, cops used to know who the notorious snatchers, muggers, pickpockets and fences of various items were, and could recover stolen items if there were detailed descriptions of the suspect.

Warnings were usually given by the police to those petty thieves. “Petty” is a misnomer; people have lost lives to muggers. But with penny ante pickpockets and snatchers, cops – a number of whom lived or grew up in slums – keenly understood that many crimes were rooted in poverty. They tended to treat petty thievery with some forbearance, especially when juveniles were involved.

But if police warnings were ignored and the muggings and snatchings became rampant, the cops knew exactly who should be used as a “sample” and “neutralized.” I never heard any loud complaints from crime victims about the neutralization. Except, of course, from the relatives of the slain thieves.

* * *

After democracy was restored, there was greater awareness of human rights including those of crime suspects, and cops found themselves facing administrative and criminal complaints when the rights were violated. Summary neutralizations slowed down.

With the police becoming a national force rather than local, cops could be assigned anywhere in the country, with many no longer familiar with the neighborhood pickpocket, fence or drug pusher.

There was a period several years after the 1986 people power revolt when Manila cops were widely suspected of executing petty thieves in Manila, leaving the bodies with cardboard signs declaring that they were robbers who must not be emulated. But the “salvagings” did not stop the petty thievery. To this day lawlessness in the city remains a serious problem.

A succession of presidents (with the exception of Joseph Estrada) made it clear that extrajudicial methods of law enforcement would not be tolerated. Even cops who killed or wounded suspects in legitimate operations found themselves facing lawsuits, with the Philippine National Police not giving them financial or logistical support in their legal problems.

So the neutralization operations and violations of the rights of suspects have died down. The most atrocious cases, such as the massacre in Atimonan and the use of the “Wheel of Torture” resulted in the swift suspension, eventual dismissal from the service and criminal prosecution of those involved.

The election of Rodrigo Duterte by the widest margin ever marks the first time that a president is expected to support harsh police responses to criminality.

As Duterte observed last night, he didn’t receive an overwhelming mandate to play nice with the chronically criminal-minded who pose a threat to public safety.

Being a former prosecutor, Duterte surely understands the danger of his promised harshness going overboard and being abused, especially by latent psychopaths in law enforcement.

* * *

The war on drugs in particular can be abused. Anti-narcotics agents have a history of planting evidence for extortion, and several have been arrested for coddling drug traffickers or being drug dealers themselves. It’s amazing how cops keep raiding shabu laboratories where only the janitors are caught; the traffickers themselves are never home.

I don’t think a lot of tears will be shed in case notorious drug dealers or their police coddlers end up dead. I’m sure even some of the owners of those stolen smartphones in Parañaque wouldn’t care if the snatchers ended up dead with cardboard signs hanging from their necks.

Last night Duterte gave the incoming chief of the National Bureau of Investigation specific orders, in case an NBI agent is found to be involved in drug deals: “I want you to kill him personally. I want you to do the killing.”

Judging from the public mood as reflected in election results, we won’t hear a lot of complaints about that marching order either.

But there is also the danger that cops will be trigger-happy even when innocent lives are compromised, just to earn brownie points with a tough-talking president.

There’s a popular saying about jailing the pusher but saving the user, considering that drug abuse is a social problem.

In 2005, movie star Nora Aunor was apprehended at Los Angeles International Airport for possession of 7.7 grams of methamphetamine. She was freed on $10,000 bail. As part of a deal, she was made to undergo a court-supervised one-year detoxification program.

Duterte hasn’t even started yet; he is sure to enjoy public support in his campaign at least in the early months. But if he wants to sustain that support, he must give his law enforcers clear parameters for implementing his take-no-prisoners approach to the problem of drugs and criminality.

* * *

SCAREDY RODY? I don’t know if the president-elect, who says anyone who can’t kill has no business being president, is truly scared of ghosts at Malacañang. Are even the ghosts in Davao scared of him so he never senses them in his city?

Yes there must be ghosts at Malacañang, and no, I’m not on green amore or smoking weed. I worked at Malacañang for several years as a reporter and we could only attribute to the paranormal the frequent loud footsteps that we heard and doors banging in areas where there were no people, cats, dogs, birds or strong wind, especially on the upper floors.

But haunted or not, it’s still the traditional seat of power, and a president abandons Malacañang at his own risk. Just ask Joseph Estrada. In case of an attempt to grab power, which we have experienced several times in the recent past, physical occupation of this seat sends a powerful message to the nation about who’s in control.