Murky fantasy of fighting crime

Just as the Cebu public is getting a respite from the irritating partisan rhetoric in issues related to the ABC election in Cebu City, a police officer was shot dead by the driver of a village official last Monday, in a plot twist reminiscent of machinations in Hollywood movies.

William Macaslang Jr., the driver of former Tejero barangay captain and now councilman Jessielou Cadungog, is now facing homicide charges before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office. Macaslang alleged that he shot Police Officer 3 Eugene Calumba in self-defense because the latter allegedly tried to kill Cadungog.  The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) meanwhile filed separate murder and frustrated murder complaints against Cadungog and Macaslang, apart from the National Bureau of Investigation’s homicide complaint against Macaslang.

That the police insist on murder charges against Cadungog and Macaslang, while the NBI only found probable cause to charge Macaslang of homicide, presses the need for a thorough and impartial investigation of the incident.

Unfortunately for Police Regional Office-7 Director Debold Sinas, the public at this time does not trust the police in the investigation. The recent spate of unsolved killings in Cebu City involving gunmen riding tandem in motorcycles, the barcode tattoos on the left wrist of the dead police officer and his police asset-driver, and the climate of impunity surrounding the drug war – these are just a few of the circumstances that make the public suspicious of the police.

Also, Sinas’ belated claim that Cadungog is being tagged as a drug personality seems to be just an afterthought – in the words of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, a “mere excuse on the side of the police.” I won’t be surprised that this plot could soon take on political color with Osmeña’s enemies raring to stick to him the “drug lord protector” tag.

That is why there must be a thorough and impartial investigation of the incident and the circumstances surrounding it. Thus, we welcome the three-member panel created by city prosecutor to look into the homicide and murder complaints. Prosecutors Maria Theresa Casiño, Ma. Liza Jorda, and Gandhi Truya are trusted straight arrows in the justice department.

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In the book “A Duterte Reader,” author Nicole Curato described Duterte’s “illiberal fantasies” as seemingly built on five components: “(1) the scaling up of the Davao model; (2) the securitization of the drug menace; (3) the mobilization of the state’s coercive apparatus; (4) the projection of public support; and (5) weak mechanisms for accountability in the drug war.”

Drawing from this view, one can say that the PNP’s credulous adherence to the “relentless and chilling” doctrine of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war has put to risk the credibility and trust that the said institution has tried to build with the public for years. SWS survey showed that 94 percent of the public think that it is important to keep drug suspects alive while 78 percent are worried that a family member will become a direct or collateral victim of extrajudicial killings.

Nothing more demonstrated this fact than the reaction of Cebuanos to the recent spate of killings rocking our community. Public trust in the PNP in Cebu is at an all-time low, and it doesn’t help that its top officials in the city and region would rather strut with brusque answers to the media about fighting drugs and crime, than show actual results in solving these crimes, particularly the execution-style killings.

The PNP’s predicament finds explanation in Curato’s own words: “Without solving the systemic issues of corruption, reforming an unprofessional police force, and rectifying a culture of impunity, the illiberal fantasy (of Duterte) will end up as murky as the liberal ideal.”

The public are not ignorant of the fact that the system of accountability within the PNP organization is weak. To borrow the words in Curato’s book: The problem with Duterte’s view of the police is it assumes “that there is a clear line that separates scalawags in uniform from all the rest.” (Coronel, 2017) “This is inconsistent with realities on the ground. The police ‘operate in the grey zone’ where rules are negotiated given the limitations of the context.”

Such “deeply embedded institutional culture” of the PNP, coupled with a flawed justice system “that perpetuates impunity,” constitute a force more powerful than Duterte or any sitting president with good intentions, who are nonetheless good at spinning a “compelling fantasy” amid the absence of “broader institutional reforms.”