Fear factor

It took 10 days before Jose Antonio Sanvicente Jr., accompanied by mom and dad plus lawyer, presented himself to the police and publicly apologized to the security guard he had run over with his RAV 4 and then abandoned in Mandaluyong.

What finally made Sanvicente surrender was the observation made by the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), that only a drug addict would behave like the driver of the sport utility vehicle.

Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr., PNP officer-in-charge, said last Monday: “Isa lang ang sasabihin ko sa iyo: baka adik ka. Bakit ayaw mo mag-surrender?… Sanvicente apelyido mo hindi ba? Huwag ka lang sana maging Santo Vicente.”

In the time of Tokhang and Double Barrel, the implication of the reference to drugs and possible sainthood was not lost on the Sanvicentes.

Last Wednesday, Sanvicente finally surfaced and apologized to security guard Christian Joseph Floralde. Asked to explain his behavior, Sanvicente invoked panic and brain fog.

As his distraught mother explained, close to tears, Danao’s reference to possible drug addiction finally made them decide to have Sanvicente turn himself in together with the RAV 4, which has been impounded as evidence in a crime.

This incident dramatizes the impact of President Duterte’s take-no-prisoners approach to the illegal drug scourge.

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Even in his final days in power, the war on drugs is top of mind for Duterte. In nearly every speech he has delivered in recent weeks, he defends his brutal campaign, urging his successor to continue the war, and vowing to keep waging it even when his term is over. The speeches are still punctuated with what has become an all-too-familiar warning to drug personalities: “Don’t f*** with me… if you destroy my country, I will kill you!”

After six years of killings, we all know, including the Sanvicentes, that it’s no empty threat.

And the effect of the drug war’s fear factor on the hit-and-run case involving Sanvicente gives you an idea of why short cuts to law enforcement enjoy strong support in this country – as indicated in the continuing high popularity of Rodrigo Duterte.

Because of the weakness of the justice system, which is packed with compromised magistrates who owe their appointments and promotions not to merit but to politicians and the influence-peddling religious mafia, such extrajudicial short cuts are seen by many as the best recourse for obtaining what passes for swift justice.

The weakness of the justice system also explains the popularity of TV shows that promise immediate relief for the underprivileged who run into a wall of red tape or neglect when dealing with government agencies.

Such shows, like Duterte, deliver swift action.

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The video of Sanvicente running over Floralde was caught on a dashcam and went viral almost as soon as the incident occurred. Since the license plate was recorded, the vehicle owner was quickly identified.

Based on the registration, the Land Transportation Office issued several summonses to Sanvicente. After being ignored several times, the LTO canceled Sanvicente’s driver’s license. Still, the driver remained in hiding.

Sanvicente also ignored calls from the police to present himself for investigation. Interviews with Floralde, showing him bandaged in his hospital bed and facing possible long-term debilitation because the vehicle had rolled over his upper torso, also didn’t work.

PNP officials, under fire for not conducting a hot pursuit of a hit-and-run driver and apprehending him pronto, said they were waiting for an arrest warrant to be issued by a court. The RAV 4 was not tailed on the spot and cops did not press a hot pursuit when they were prevented by security guards from entering Ayala Heights subdivision in Balara, Quezon City to apprehend a resident, Sanvicente.

This is reminiscent of the case of Sunglass Hut president Rajiv Ramesh Dargani, whose Audi R8 sports car with borrowed license plates struck a motorcycle, killing the driver, Henrix Bernardo and seriously injuring his passenger, Glenn Nacion Jr. along McKinley Road in Forbes Park in the afternoon of April 20, 2013.

Instead of stopping, Dargani sped away to the Palm Avenue gate of Dasmariñas Village where he lives. There was no police hot pursuit, and there was still no warrant for his arrest weeks after the homicide.

In the case of Sanvicente, the PNP said it had to determine if he was the driver or his father, Jose Antonio Sr. It turned out that Junior was both the RAV 4 owner and driver.

Speculation swirled that because of the circumstances, the driver would take the opportunity to skip town and escape prosecution. To prevent this, an immigration lookout bulletin was issued against Sanvicente, upon the PNP’s request.

Without that ominous statement from Danao about the driver possibly being a drug addict, would Sanvicente have surfaced?

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Duterte has openly admitted that he overestimated the nationwide extent of the problem and failed to deliver on his campaign promise of eradicating the drug menace in six months.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is trying to shake off his father’s dark record on human rights, doesn’t seem keen on pursuing the same brutal approach – if reports are true that he wants Senate President Tito Sotto as consultant in the anti-drug campaign.

Sotto, while campaigning for the vice presidency together with his standard bearer Sen. Panfilo Lacson, had said he would be in charge of the anti-drug drive in case their tandem won. Sotto said it would be a gentler campaign, with emphasis on addressing the demand and rehabilitating drug abusers even as law enforcement operations continue against the traffickers.

In fact the trend of the anti-narcotics campaign under boomer Bongbong Marcos might even be in the opposite direction. Tracking global developments, the incoming administration could be receptive to the legalization of marijuana, for example, as Thailand has done.

Beyond a new tack in the war on drugs, little improvement is expected in the weak justice system and law enforcement.

This guarantees that Filipinos will continue going for politicians who can deliver the closest thing they can get to swift justice, regardless of the means.