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Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Speak out: IBP and vigilantes
By John Pala
The vigilantes deserve to be honored, and then condemned. Not a few have become thankful to them for eradicating 160 criminals from our land.
When finally identified and apprehended, they should be applauded for the results. They certainly did better than the police.
But they also murdered, and so they will have to be tried and jailed—or perhaps given the same treatment they did their victims.
The way they were identified is another case of embarrassment to the police. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) is correct to bring their case not to the police but to another agency, a commission.
Lawyers themselves know what will happen if the police or the National Bureau of Investigation would handle it. If indeed the vigilantes are backed by powerful and influential persons in government, then we shall see them fall one after another, vigilante style, either by their backers or perhaps by another or new “vigilante” group.
A number of columnists have already written of this vicious cycle. The IBP should not drag its feet on this case. The longer time they take, the more pressure will be directed on them.
I fear that this will end up like the famous “drug lords list” a few years back. It also spoke of “powerful persons” in Cebu. The intensity gradually fizzled, and none were really caught, except perhaps the small fries.
Money and influence will flow, trading will be done, negotiations and compromises will be concluded behind closed doors or in secret dining, wining and dealing.
A scene of 160 plus dead criminals is better than 16 live ones roaming our streets.
But then again, the end does not justify the means. So, let us thank the vigilantes for the good end of snuffing 160 bad lives.
But let us try and jail them for doing it the way they did it—the vigilante way.
Then we would satisfy two segments of thinking: those who, in some twisted thinking, believed in the “righteousness” of the vigilante manner of justice and the ones who kept faith in the law or justice itself no matter how slow.
Corporation with no name
(name of writer withheld upon request)
To all government agencies concerned: Will a corporation be allowed to operate without a business name yet?
A hedge fund research center, a corporation, already operating in Cebu City since January this year still has a pending application for business name with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Now, they are terminating the services of employees who have been with the company for six months and are hiring new personnel without work contracts. Dismissing employees is as easy as “snapping a finger” to this company.
During paydays, employees don’t get pay slips, an indication that the company is not paying Social Security System contributions and taxes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
This company is tuck in one of the residential communities in Barangay Banilad.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 5, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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