State of lawlessness

President Duterte is right. There is indeed a state of lawlessness prevailing around us. Even if we support his relentless anti-drugs war, it is difficult to ignore the cardboard killings by anonymous murderers.

This is lawlessness, pure and simple. Government has the duty to protect the people from the criminals behind these killings. This is what the social compact is all about. That’s government’s reason for being.

An article in the New York Times observed that our lawless violence shows “a weak state and a population desperate for security… Once the government makes it clear that no one will face legal repercussions for extrajudicial killings, then anybody with a gun and a grudge has free license to go and victimize people without worrying about the consequences.”

It won’t even be right to call these murder cases extrajudicial killings. These are plain murder cases. It is wrong to assume the killings were because of the illegal drug activities of the victims. For all we know, simple grudges are being settled by private parties in a most murderous fashion and being made to appear as drug vigilante killings.

Then again, it is possible that some of these cardboard murders are police related. That possibility had been mentioned by President Duterte himself and PNP Chief Bato as well. It is possible, or even probable, that so called ninja cops are killing their “assets” or shabu distributors before they can talk and link them to the drug trade.

In a Senate hearing, the case of the Antipolo cops was brought up by the daughter of a couple who ended up dead in the street. The development so upset Chief Bato de la Rosa that he personally went to the police station to relieve the cops of their duties and sent them off to Internal Affairs for investigation.

The growing boldness of these killings outside of legitimate police operations is sending a chilling message to citizens that it is indeed, quite lawless out there. No one is safe… as what happened to little girls killed by stray bullets.

In the Temple Drive case, it was reported the woman was thrown out of a Fortuner SUV and shot several times. That they had a cardboard sign ready showed they must have planned the murder. Whoever is behind it must have means. A Fortuner is several steps up a motorcycle riding in tandem operation.

Indeed, Malacañang itself described as “a cause for concern” that about half of the nearly 3,000 drug-related killings recorded by the police were staged by suspected vigilante groups. The PNP reported a total of 1,490 people were slain by unknown assailants believed to be members of vigilante groups.

Most, if not all of the resources and attention of authorities are focused on the illegal drug trade. They are trying to meet a self imposed deadline of six months to fix the problem.

This is well and good, but they must not forget the public’s sense of personal security is shaken by the prevalence of anonymous murder cases. Duterte and Bato cannot declare a victory in the anti drug campaign and expect people to feel secure if these anonymous killings remain unsolved.

Indeed, even cases of killings in police operations ought to be honestly investigated. The public seems to be skeptical of some claims of self defense by the police, as in the case of some Pasay City cops.

Even if the President and the PNP chief have warned the policemen against extra judicial killing, the really crooked cops who want to clean their tracks will take the short cut. Perhaps, the Internal Affairs office of the PNP should be given more resources because of the overload of cases they have to process.

The President and the PNP chief have also said in many public statements that they are against these cardboard sign murders. They have to show displeasure by action and produce results because this kind of lawless violence makes government seem helpless… inutile.

I am not sure all these have reached the level that could adversely affect the desirability of our business environment. But if lawless violence is left unchecked, local and foreign investors will bring their capital elsewhere.

President Duterte himself said during the campaign that peace and order is the best investment incentive. That means he must stop not just the illegal drug trade, but also the lawless violence claiming to be part of his war.

I get the feeling President Duterte’s tough kill kill kill message is delivering another message that justifies these anonymous murders. He must make it clear he will not tolerate plain and simple murder riding on the coattails of his war.

The President and his PNP chief have to act forcefully before these anonymous killings really get out of hand. It is not right to just call all these victims collateral damage of Duterte’s war on drugs.

Unless people see the government is moving to stop these death squads, a general feeling of personal insecurity will prevail and eventually establish a climate of fear that Duterte never bargained for.

Caticlan

I have been receiving a lot of information from the aviation sector about how to improve the Philippine aviation scene. Since I had written about the Caticlan airport project of San Miguel, I have received a number of comments about it.

From the airline sector, they told me in so many words not to believe everything Ramon Ang says about Caticlan. One joked RSA is so visionary he seems to have difficulty differentiating between his dreams and reality on the ground.

Well, mea culpa. I indeed wrote RSA told me about how Caticlan could take in an A320 early this year, and then middle of this year, but up to now it still isn’t ready.

San Miguel had this argument with CAAP on the right length of the runway. Then they have to wait for CAAP to complete its certification process for Caticlan.

The local airlines told me to tell RSA they would be happy for now to just have proper runway lights so that they can fly their regular planes without worrying about sunset curfew.

Anyway, the airlines pointed out, the present terminal building is very inadequate to take in the passengers of even one A320. The new terminal won’t be ready until a year or so from now. And there is no place to park an Airbus so Caticlan will end up like Tagbilaran --- one plane in, one plane out.

I texted RSA and here is his response: “runway lights have been installed together with threshold lights, runway end identification lights. The procedure design has been approved by Capt Antonio Buendia former DG CAAP last Aug. 2016. We are still completing the additional documents required by CAAP to be submitted next week.”

Allowing the airlines to fly beyond sunset at Caticlan will also help alleviate traffic congestion at NAIA. Sana siguro, malapit na.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him at Twitter @boochanco.