The cost of human life

I wrote last week about how the culture of violence is consuming our society and how, under the rule of our President, it has become increasingly normal for people to get killed on a daily basis. I was only touching on his continuing “war on drugs” last time that has already claimed thousands of lives in the first six months alone. Now, with the pending return of the death penalty, we’re looking at even more lives lost in the months and years ahead.

Prior to the new administration I remember saying I was for the death penalty because I felt that criminals had been running rampant without any fear, preying on innocent Filipinos because they felt immune to punishment. While there is still some truth to that statement, I feel that the culture we currently have right now is not the right one in which to reinstate capital punishment. After all, won’t that just be removing the extra-judicial in extra-judicial killings?

I understand where President Duterte is coming from. I know that there is a big problem here in the Philippines. Criminals are still going strong and we have to put fear of the law into them to protect their would-be victims. However, I also feel that the justice system may not be 100% equipped to wield the power of life and death at the moment. There is still so much corruption in the Philippines. How can we pretend that we are ready to decide who will live and who will die?

Prior to President Duterte taking office, the problem that always seemed to plague our justice system is that justice has always been for sale. If you had money or influence, you could buy your freedom. After all, those filling up the prisons were always from the poor and marginalized. Those who had the clout and the money could always find a way to go free. I don’t think this problem has been completely solved now. After all, we see people with influence getting away with a slap on the wrist now while those with no power or money are being made to pay the highest possible price.

With the death penalty possibly coming back the president has threatened to execute “five or six” death row convicts daily. He claims he wanted capital punishment restored because he wanted to use it as a deterrent tool against criminals. He wanted to kill as many as five or six a day because he felt that that would be the only way capital punishment would be useful as a deterrent tool, if it was used liberally and publicly. This way, criminals would see first hand what could possibly happen to them should they commit capital crimes. Currently some of the crimes punishable by death include rape, murder, kidnapping for ransom, and drug trafficking.

Again, the concept is good, since those who take life and commit capital crimes should be made to pay the price, the problem is the implementation. Will we only be seeing the poor and marginalized as victims of the death penalty or will it be an equal opportunity punishment for all? The only way for this to truly work is for justice to be blind to friendship, to prior partnerships, to money and power, to everything. However, until we can truly assure that that will happen, we should not be so cavalier in the concept of taking human life.

It certainly does seem that human life has become worth less these past few months in the country. There was a time that thousands being killed would elicit outrage among our people. These days though it elicits cheers and support. Do we so desperately want to believe that we are doing the right thing and executing drug pushers and distributors? Does that help us sleep better at night?

The problem is, even if we choose to think that, I don’t think that’s entirely true. We may be getting drug users but we are only getting the small fish. This is not going to change the drug industry in the country. We know how insidious drugs are and how deeply ingrained they have become in the Philippines. Killing small fry drug users and low-level pushers isn’t going to make a dent. If the president really wants to make a change he needs to go after the big fish – the big distributors and the manufacturers. The problem is that these people are usually very well protected and more than happy for their poor pushers/customers to take the fall.

At the end of the day, I truly believe we all want the same thing – a safer Philippines and a country that is not dangerous for our children and our families. We just need to ask ourselves, how we are going about that and what we are willing to pay to get it.

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As far as combating drugs go, I must applaud San Miguel Corp. for donating P1 billion to the government for the construction of drug rehabilitation facilities in its ongoing effort to fight illegal drugs. Many have been saying that users, especially those who turn themselves in and want to make amends, should be given the chance to be rehabilitated. This is a good positive step forward and will hopefully pave the way for an alternative solution as opposed to being killed.

I know that SMC has always been very generous in terms of their corporate social responsibility programs and I commend Ramon Ang for the donation that will certainly go a long way towards helping our fellow Filipinos who can be saved from drug dependence through rehabilitation.