Violence, violated and why I believe in the death penalty

So we don't live in a perfect world. Is there anything wrong with wanting to?

Have you ever felt being violated because of a crime committed against you?

I have. I've had a gun poked in front of my face by some drunk bodyguards of a ConCon delegate (during the Marcos era) after they bumped my car from the back. They told me to say it was my fault or that I would be found among the salt mines. I pissed in my pants out of fear. When the cop arrived he asked what happened and then took me to the precint but not the burly idiots. He let me go after I told him what happened. I was so shaken up when I arrived home and when I told my parents about it, they were infuriated. I couldn't sleep and kept thinking - what if? I never took the same route again. It took me a few months to shake off the feeling, but I could never forget at staring a gun in my face.

When I was fresh out of medical school, I served in one of the government rural centers as part of the Marcos' program where where it was mandated that doctors serve in a rural community for 6 months after their internship. One day, after seeing all the patients in the health clinic, one of the patients had requested for some free medicines. I stood up to go to the medicine cabinet and left my bag for a few seconds, got the meds she requested, gave it to her. I saw a few more patients then left the center to meet up with my mom. When I got to where my mom was, I couldn't find my wallet. Gone! Money. License. Cards. Everything!

I was angry and I felt violated. It was an unforgettable feeling. I had sleepless nights thinking about it. Like a bad movie, it just kept playing over and over and over again in my head.

A few weeks passed and life was back to normal. Or so I thought.

Living in the Philippines is like putting a gun to your head. It's a Russian roulette with life.

During my residency training, I had felt the violation again. While doing a bone marrow aspiration for a charity patient, I left my bag by the door. It took less than 5 minutes to finish the procedure...and my bag - wallet and all - had disappeared. A few weeks later, all my cards and license were strewn in front of the house of someone who contacted me after seeing the address on my license. But they were useless already by the time they were discovered. I had felt so much anger and so much pain. It was reliving a nightmare over and over again.

And the cops could not do anything. Report it. Blotter it. And then that's it. No response or feedback again.

A year after we moved to our house, two thieves had broken into our home and beat up our maid. It was good that they were caught in the middle of the robbery. But we were shaken. Even in an exclusive village like ours, no one was spared from crime.

The recent spate of killings over carnapping incidents which occurred in a 2-3 days span sent shivers up my spine. Evangelista and Lozano were found burned and shot with bullets through their heads in some deserted place in Central Luzon. Both were used car salesmen. Both ended up dead in the most henious way.

When I read the news about these grizzly killings, I recalled what one of my patient's mother told me. A few years ago, they bought a new Pajero. It was only a few days old when it was carjacked right in front of their garage. Some men came in, pointed a gun at the head of their daughter, pointed a gun at the husband and the SUV was gone in 30 seconds. When they reported it to the police, the cop just replied - "since your car is insured, the insurance company will pay you the full cost of a brand new car. Just forget about this one. You wouldn't want the thieves to come after you and your family."

SANAMAGAN!!! THIS IS THE KIND OF POLICE THIS COUNTRY HAS!!!

And I am sure that the cops are in cahoots with the hoodlooms. While I cannot say that all cops are bad, I firmly believe the bad cops outnumber the good ones. I base it on experience. You get death threats each time you expose a rogue cop. They know who you are and where you live. With reasoning like this and no follow-up on crimes, you get the feeling of helplessness. Worst is how they reason out. That the current scenario is that the number of cars that are stolen are much lower this year compared to the same time last year! Did I get it right? My God!!!! With this kind of reasoning, it was tantamount to saying that "it's okay to be poor and hungry, there were more starving last year!" This typical answer from government officials and cops and military personnel is moronic!

While the church and the sorry asses have their hearts bleeding out against the death penalty, saying that it is anti-poor and that there are a lot of innocent people who are sentenced to die because they were wrongly accused, I can only reply that it's not the punishment that's the wrong solution. It's the judicial system! There is something very wrong in our judicial system and it makes me want to puke that even PNoy with all his want-to-do-good and be-good attitude has got his brain all warped up in order to please the church and the faith.

I know that I may strike a few sensitive chords here, especially among those who would die for the faith and for religion, but this is a personal opinion. While imposing the death penalty may not be a deterrent to crime in the Philippines, it is because we do not impose the punishment to the full extent.

I remember that Marcos sent a strong message when he had a drug pusher publicly executed by firing squad. For awhile, drug pushing was at it's all time low. Today we are the drug mule mecca of the world!

One can debate the pros and cons of the death penalty. I am sure though, that until you've stared the end of the barrel of a gun in your face and watch your life go quickly by, you don't have the right to any opinion on this matter at all. The feeling of being violated because of violence can only be solved with "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

[photo from ABS-CBN]

Lessons from a carnage

Unlike other hostage taking scenarios in the Philippines, this one did not have a happy ending. Eight (or nine) people died in the carnage that brought the Philippines notoriety for being one of the most dangerous places to live in.

It started around 1030AM and ended 11 hours later leaving a bloodbath in one of the worst crimes ever committed by a Philippine law enforcement officer.

Whatever triggered it and how it ended is a story in itself.

But the questions asked by the public and the lessons learned should by an eye opener for our police force, who lately have been under the microscope from an appreciative public. Obviously, the torture of suspected criminals in my Facebook wall has received ambivalent responses from Filipinos and the foreign community. Some call it barbaric. Others, it was a form of justice.

The carnage was simply that - a balance of injustice in this country, where the rich don't go to jail and where the poor are miscasted as the scum of the earth. Indeed, if you've got the dough, or you're related to someone in power, then you're treated differently.

Now that the hostage drama is over, a post hoc analysis on the blame game is inevitable.

Who was responsible and could this event have been prevented?

1. Why did the driver stop to pick up the policeman who was armed with an armalite? I mean, the news reports had it that the policeman "hitched" a ride in Intramuros then announced the hostage situation when they were at the Quirino grandstand. And how did he get loose? The driver claimed he used a nailcutter. What a boyscout! Always ready - for this scenario? Duh? And the police investigators just brushed him off as a victim as well.

2. If you watched the LIVE events, you would have laughed at the slow pace of rescue. The policeman-hostage-taker was ready to die. And no one took him seriously. Of course, until he started counting bodies.

3. Then there was the media. Both ABS-CBN and GMA were rushing to the scene. While I admire their bravery at covering such a daring assault, there should be rules on hostage taking and MUST be more sensitive about the matter. Unfortunately, the bus had a TV set in it. And the hostage taker had a full view of what was going on outside. Including the way the police manhandled the brother of the policeman. Right after the manhandling scene, the carnage began. The number of bodies started piling up.

4. The rescue was pitiful. It was comedy cum drama. It just showed how much lack in training our police officers have. Not to mention the poor judgment of media! It turned out to be a circus and I am sure that media will always hide under the cloak of freedom of information, a clause so loosely applied to what they want to say without taking the total situation into consideration. Of course, some people attacked the slow rescue pace of the police, but you must be watching too much NCIS or CSI to get into this conclusion. In fairness, I guess the policemen who were at the scene had to contend with very little equipment including bullet proof vests and other paraphernalia for the rescue. No one wanted to be the next to die.

The government will now have to review this after all the dust has settled. At the end, it would be pathetic that the only excuse we can give is that we need to be forgiven and understood...for after all, this is the banana republic.

[As a background of the bemedaled policeman, copy this link on why he was dismissed from the police force.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=605632&publicationSubCategoryId=63]