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Monday, March 03, 2003
Sienes: A bad law
By Cris G. Sienes
"Such a selective enforcement of the anti-smoking ordinance will make it a bad and unjust law not worthy of honor or respect. It is as if the ordinance were a large spider's web which only catches the weak and the delicate, but the affluent and the powerful simply torn it to pieces."
ON FEBRUARY 14, upon arriving at the CM Recto Landbank branch, I noticed a small crowd of people watching two motorcycle-riding policemen collar a young man.
When I inquired what happened, someone in the crowd answered: "Nadakpan ang batan-on nga nagsigarilyo (The young man was caught smoking)."
Smoking is not a heinous crime, and since it was Valentine's Day, perhaps the policemen should have simply let the young man go instead of adding another case for the courts to handle. Our courts are already clogged up with cases. The law must sometimes be tempered with mercy.
But the policemen showed no mercy. After making the young man sign a certain document, they whisked him away on board one of their motorcycles.
Right after the policemen left, the crowd began grumbling. I heard one distinctly say: "Kon mga ordinaryong tawo ang manigarilyo, dakpon dayon. Apan kon mga dagku ug iladong mga tawo ang manigarilyo, ang mga pulis mura ug mga iro nga nagbahag ang ikog sa kahadlok (When ordinary people smoke, policemen immediately arrest them, but when known and influential people smoke, policemen act like scared curs with their tails between their legs)."
Doubtless some of those in the crowd had read reports of influential people who were seen smoking in public but were allowed to go scot-free.
I can't say I blame them for complaining. No one is supposed to be above the law. So the anti-smoking ordinance should be enforced upon all violators no matter who they are.
A selective enforcement of the ordinance, especially if enforced only on small and ordinary people, will make the public believe that there is a double standard enforcement of the ordinance, one for the poor and the weak, who are immediately apprehended, another for the strong and the influential, who are not touched at all.
Such a selective enforcement of the anti-smokking ordinance will make it a bad and unjust law not worthy of honor or respect. It is as if the ordinance were a large spider's web which only catches the weak and the delicate, but the affluent and the powerful simply torn it to pieces.
Anyway, the PNP and the city's Anti-Smoking Task Force are now preparing charges against the influential people who were seen smoking in public.
But in the face of doubts and questions on the anti-smoking ordinance, the city council should lose no time in amending it. To resort to more detours and delays in amending the ordinance will only add more doubts and questions about it, not to mention complaints about it.
Personally, I believe that the anti-smoking ordinance should be decriminalized. Smoking, after all, is not a heinous crime. A reprimand for the first offense, community work for the second offense, and stiff fines for the third and succeeding offenses will do. Even the California anti-smoking law is not as strict as ours in defining places where people may not smoke. Ngano, nagpasikat ba kita?
*****
Poor Luis Santos! For smoking on stage at Camp Catitipan, he has not only been subjected to harsh words but his act has also been magnified into a big and heated issue.
Personally, I do not believe that it was the intention of Santos and all the rest who were caught smoking to disobey or flout the anti-smoking ordinance. If they smoked, it was out of habit. Smoking is like drug addiction. Once you get hooked to the habit, it's very difficult to stop it. If only for this, violators of the anti-smoking ordinance ought not to be treated like common criminals.
To reiterate, the ordinance should be decriminalized. Our courts already have more cases than they can normally handle. Let's not overburden them.
Point to Ponder: "For law is meaningless if there is no public will to observe it. And this public will, in turn, can exist only when the law is just and deserving of honor... There are not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people." --Hubert Humphrey, Speech, Williamsburg, Virginia, May 1, 1965 |
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