The police in Davao City arrested three men suspected of robbery and a few days later, on March 14, they were presented to the city’s mayor, Rodrigo Duterte in the presence of the local press and television crews. The suspects, their faces exposed to the cameras were dressed in the orange shirts worn by convicts with “DCPO (Davao City Police Office) detainees” written on the front. Mayor Duterte questioned them and forced one of the suspects to admit to robbing the manager of a cooperative.
The suspects, with no legal counsel present with them claimed innocence while they were being questioned, Mayor Duterte silenced one of them telling him to keep his mouth shut: Saba diha yaya ka lang (Shut up, you’re lousy). As Duterte approached another suspect he told the man: Murag kakita naman ko nimo, nganong buhi pa man ni? (I think I’ve seen you before, why is this fellow still alive?). In the local context, it implies that he should have already been killed for his supposed involvement in criminal activities.
The scheme, broadcast widely by local televisions, was done deliberately by a public official and in open view so as to arbitrarily decide the guilt of these men. The city’s mayor no longer cares or bothers about being seen in such a situation with arrested suspects presented before him — it is his routine practice in dealing with them. Unlike other police or military that may have had a history of committing abuses and torture, Mayor Duterte does it openly without any semblance of respect for the suspects or for the face that they might be innocent. Any suspects presented before him are routinely humiliated and condemned before the public.
When the Mayor wondered why one of the suspects was still alive, he knew that the suspect was fully aware of what he meant and it was not meant as a joke. His support of extrajudicial killings, whilst denying any direct involvement, is public knowledge. The people, the viewers, are made to presume the suspect is guilty; and that his death is long overdue. It is a place where some television, radio and newspapers have allowed themselves to become complicit to passing on the message that criminals, whether convicted or not, are lesser beings. It is a scene horribly reminiscent of the gladiators in the Roman Coliseum.
This practice of parading and humiliating suspects while in police custody effectively allows the suspects to be questioned in the absence of their legal counsel. A mayor having no police, prosecution and judicial power, has routinely treated the suspects before him in such a way as to effectively undermine the lawful authority of the institutions of justice. The police, like the television stations and the press, have allowed themselves to be complicit to the public humiliation of persons under their custody instead of protecting them.
The Mayor’s treatment towards these arrested suspects reinforces his rhetoric on the pretext of restoring public and order at the expense of their lives has already seeped into the mentality of his constituents thereby making his illegal acts justifiable. Over the years, extrajudicial executions of criminals, thieves and gang leaders have continued unabated there. There the concept of presumption of innocence or due process simply does not exist to this group of people — the alleged criminal offenders. The notion of equality and equal protection to law has no meaning for arrested offenders and those suspected of committing crimes. Innocent or otherwise, routine humiliation and killings are openly perpetrated and supported respectively by the citys mayor. A public official obliged to follow the concepts of the rule of law is tacitly violating them with the open approval of the police. Criminal offenders are routinely killed before any charges are laid or before they can make their defense in court.
The hundreds of persons killed in recent years, whose deaths remain unsolved, illustrates the extent to which the deep prejudice and bias exists for this class of people. It is a place wherein what is right and what is wrong is decided upon on the necessity of restoring peace and order without any regard to norms or notion of legality.
By openly tolerating and supporting this practice, the people of Davao City are abandoning not only their sense of value of human lives but they are allowing the fundamental laws and rules to be seriously undermined. In a place where killings of criminals gain a certain level of acceptance, worst forms of brutality, arbitrariness and loss of lives has become a way of life. A violation of one persons fundamental right to life is left without any possibility for legal redress. The act of killing criminals has evolved to the point where it is no longer seen as a crime itself as it is believed that the victim deserved to die.
As far as the press is concerned reporting extrajudicial killings has become equal to reporting incidents of petty theft. The lack of documentation of cases of killings in recent times does not reflect its reduction, but the loss of interest to document these cases. The coverage of these killings and the investigations by the police has gone wrong. Instead of investigating the death and seeking out the perpetrators more effort is put into establishing the victims criminal record in order to justify the death
By expunging the notion of rule of law and due process, public officials and the police have obtained the assurance that they will not held be accountable for their illegal acts and their failure to prevent the loss of lives and their incompetence to solve these killings by ensuring effective prosecution of cases.
When a society develops acceptance to this, the concept of State responsibility and accountability is deliberately reduced. What is barbaric and uncivilized has become justifiable. What is in contrary to provision of the Constitutional rights obtains a certain level of legality. This is the condition the city is already in today and the public officials and agents of the State are themselves responsible.
