Buencamino does political commentary for Action for Economic Reforms. This article was published in newspaper Today, February 18, 2005, p.11.
You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. – Al Capone
There are so many people who are so tired of common crime they welcomedeath squads. They complain about the law favoring due process overjustice for victims. They say it emboldens criminals. They claim speedyjustice is the best deterrent to criminal behavior.
They point to Davao City as the model of a better approach to law andorder. They say Davao City is peaceful and crime-free because speedyjustice is practiced over there. They believe Cebu City could beanother Davao City if only Mayor Osmena looked a little more inspiring.
If death squads are so effective against crime, why limit their work toblue- collar suspects? Why not kill well-dressed suspects as well? It’stime for death squads to go national.
The only ones against “speedy justice” are those human-rights types wholive for all those things that law enforcers find so inconvenient.Fortunately, they are the minority, so they don’t count.
The majority can change due process without going through due process.The Constitution doesn’t matter because the Supreme Court (SC) hasproven time and time again they can be relied on to bend to the wishesof those who must be accommodated.
The SC legalized Mrs Arroyo’s takeover of the presidency from President Estrada by inventing the concept of practical resignation. They offered up our vast hidden mineral wealth to foreigners because a witch doctor told them only foreigners possessed the magic to dig them up. The SC is a dependable ally.
How does speedy justice work? First, a diagram, similar to the Jose Maria Sison doodle featuring Walden Bello and Etta Rosales, will identify suspected criminal syndicates, their members and associates. Next, public opinion will determine whether there is any reason to suspect anyone named in the diagram.
Once someone is declared a suspect, his house will be splashed with redLim paint. Anyone living with the suspect will be wet-ragged, just to identify them as potential suspects.
All suspects are presumed guilty so they must surrender to proper authority for summary execution at a proper venue. If a suspect does not surrender voluntarily, he can and will be executed anytime, anywhere, just like that ex-commie who was judged guilty of lese majeste against Jose Maria Sison and was gunned down in a parking lot by a Royal NPA arresting team.
Who is the proper authority? “Proper authority” is anyone who is pissed and wants to kill a suspect; and “proper venue” is where a properly pissed authority carries out a summary execution.
Where does proper authority find diagrams of criminal syndicates to eliminate? Well, that’s not a problem because diagrams of the tables of organization of major criminal syndicates are available to the public.
Of course, the Bureau of Customs, BIR, DPWH, PNP and the AFP are notthe only syndicates out there, but heck, we have to start somewhere, and soon, if we want to fulfill our dream of turning this country into a wild west show like Davao City.