Lessons from the Esteban Santiago incident

Before anything else, I wish to welcome home to Cebu City all of my high school classmates. We belong to the 1967 class of the secondary department of the University of the Visayas. Some of them have, by unpredictable twist of circumstance, adopted foreign citizenship and have ironically become strangers to their native land. I am particularly happy that they now live in blissful abundance abroad and surely we are proud of their remarkable achievements.

We have, however, paused in prayerful silence for those members of our class who have crossed the great beyond ahead of us certain in the thought that they are now with the Lord.

Yesterday afternoon, we had our initial get-together. We visited our alma mater with no other idea than to let those who have been away for half-a-century see how our school is now. Even if we have been mellowed in our individual mischiefs by the advancing of years, our get-together was somewhat raucous. There were familiar youthful shrieks and abundant recollection of unforgettable adventures. Really, I thought I was the best behaved classmate, only to realize from their unbroken stream of stories, I was the most mischievous.

So much for selfish claims!

I have no formal education in intricate police work. Neither have I any schooling in the profound aspects of national security. These are strange matters to my legal education. Those daunting limitations, however, do not prevent me from setting forth my uneducated observation in the discrepancy in the efficiencies of American and Filipino police authorities. I do this to humor my high school classmates Nitoy Celedio, Gil Paden, Nimfa Rabor and Lucia Timosa, now Americans.

Let me talk about how US police and other security officers dealt with the recent incident involving the mass murders in an international airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. To recall, American officialdom revealed to the media that they treated the gruesome incident as1 “just a random act of terrorism.” After they identified the culprit as one Esteban Santiago, they explained that there appeared no indication of intricate planning by armed man. The shooter just pulled out his firearm from a declared baggage and shot many who came to his gun sight.

Let us look at how careful the police agencies did their task. They could have easily claimed that Mr. Santiago, who was arrested after he shot to death five people and injured eight more, was a sleeper of a terror cell. That would have reaped instant praises. Medals of extraordinary valor in service would have been pinned on the officers who effected the quick arrest. Ånd, the story would have ended there. Yet, they ascribed no immediate motive to the culprit. Guarded in their statements, which, by the way, they gave in reasonable timely intervals to a public desirous to know further updates, they announced their intention to investigate first why Mr. Santiago did what he did.

In our country, let us examine the unending stream of killings. In the reports, those who have been felled by bullets are suspected drug users and their killers are people riding motorcycles in tandem. First, why do our police authorities claim immediately upon arrival at the scenes of the crime that the shooting victims are drug personalities? True, most of these men are not dressed like doctors and lawyers are. The outward appearances of majority of them indicate their obvious station in life. But is that enough for police to label them as denizens of the underworld? US forces could have called Mr. Santiago a terrorist by the number of his victims!

In any case, our police forces have not shown any degree of efficiency. None of those who killed the alleged drug personalities have been identified and brought to the bar of justice. Is the assignment of the label “drug personality” justification to pursue to investigation? If the US police authorities were like our policemen, they would not have traced the route of Mr. Santiago to know the truth.

These are but few points my American classmates should be reason for them to be proud of adopting their new citizenship.

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