Descent to burlesque

The ASEAN summit, the gambits of US and China and our own strategic movements on the West Philippine Sea chessboard, North Korea’s adolescent coming of age exploits. At home, the Maute Rebellion, Private Public Partnership issues, Build3 program and its positive effects on GDP. There is more than enough here to dissect at high levels as a national conversation. Instead, for the past year, we continue to be ensnared in the debate on crime.

Carousel of the macabre. There seems to be no end in sight to the parade of Filipinos killed in the government’s war against drugs. Decline in index crimes? What about police related deaths? This statistic has exploded in the span of a year.

One of the latest casualties was high school student Kian de los Santos, 17. Dead at the hands of the Philippine National Police. The official version of the PNP before all hell broke loose was that Kian was killed in a shootout. The boy allegedly shot first, placing the lives of lawmen in mortal danger. He would have been lost to statistics were it not for CCTV footage and the testimony of witnesses that told another story.

Anatomy of a murder. Kian was already in police custody. One 17-year-old boy vs. 3 grown men with guns. From eyewitness accounts, he was on his knees, mercilessly pummeled as he begged for mercy. They found him that way, on his knees, head in the dirt. Right handed Kian had a gun in his left hand. No powder burns. Shot in the head, at least twice, at close range.

Cue the pantomime. First, the denials. It wasn’t us, says the policemen involved. Next: yes it was us. But that wasn’t Kian in the CCTV video grab, it was an intelligence asset. Their account would change, a third time, at the subsequent PNP internal affairs investigation. It was Kian after all. Finally, a rewind to the asset version at last Thursday’s televised Senate hearing. And then, of course, there was the perfunctory “nanlaban” defense. And last, the unkindest cut, the “justification” – Kian was a druggie. He wasn’t on their order of battle but they were sure he was a druggie. How? Intel. Based on? Social media posts which they checked after he was dead.

The police are the only civilian instrumentality with authority to use deadly force, deprive citizens of liberty, search and seize property. The death of a citizen during State action should be subjected to highest scrutiny to confirm if procedures were followed and to exact responsibility from those who were at fault. Here, with the clear positive efforts of the police to cover up for their men, the integrity and impartiality necessary for an investigation becomes impossible.

Right to live. Police investigating police has always been iffy because of the conflict of interest context. Fortunately, the inquiries conducted by the Senate and the Commission on Human Rights address the need for an independent investigation. This is the natural implication of the Constitutional guarantee that no one shall be deprived of life without due process of law.

Startlingly, the higher PNP structure has shown here that it can rise above partiality, notwithstanding the feeble attempts of the NPD heads at absolution. This was not a case of excessive force. With the facts emerging, it does not even qualify as a legitimate police action.  PNP Director General Bato de la Rosa himself called it a murder.

Taking the cake. But its the Department of Justice that amazes us. Starting with the vituperative tirades of a Caloocan City Asst Prosecutor against the reputation of a dead minor and then, later on, the statements of Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre himself belaboring the ardent public reaction to how he was killed. What, he asks, is the difference between being killed by an addict and being killed by the police?

This line of argument is specious. The death of any fellow human being is a tragedy to all but to be killed by the very persons whose duty it is to protect us ­ that’s worse than tragic. The Secretary also, unwittingly, insults the police as one implication of his statement is that police are no better than addicts.

Secretary Aguirre strongly believes this to be an isolated case. Here we confirm that he may think us all the greater fool. Kian’s is but the latest in a long list of police related deaths. That intense reaction the Secretary can’t understand is the public reminding all that they will no longer blindly accept propaganda. Martin Luther King wrote that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, at least, acknowledges the seriousness of Kian’s death.

Autopsy of graft. With the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, Senator Ping Lacson peeled back the layers of artifice at the hopeless Bureau of Customs with his earth shattering privilege speech on that office’s TARA list. Outgoing Commissioner Nick Faeldon, once again, bore the brunt of the exposé as he was unceremoniously identified by the Senator as the top beneficiary of all manner of corruption, including a hefty welcome to the Bureau endowment.

When Comm. Faeldon called for an independent investigation, little did we know that he was going to drop a bombshell outing Senator Lacson’s son as an alleged smuggler, and without the cover of parliamentary immunity.

The other shoe dropped. Comm. Faeldon’s exposé against private person Pampi Lacson is concededly serious. These accusations should be followed up by the necessary complaint before the Prosecutor’s office to allow him the opportunity to clear his name. But it is the charges leveled against the BOC that are more grave and require resolute follow up. While Comm. Faeldon may be personally invested in seeing if the trail from the son leads to the father, the public is curious as to where the trails from the TARA list may lead.