Monday, October 06, 2008 Editorial: May we never forget
POLICE Regional Office 11 Director Andres Caro II would rather not comment on the mauling of a detainee inside the Talomo Police Station that resulted in his death last month.
The mauling, it has been reported, was ordered by a policeman whom the drunk detainee had kicked when he was arrested the night before.
The reason why Caro prefers to keep his mouth shut is because investigation is still going on. That's understandable. Except that, we hope this is not just another ruse to let the issue pass, and later on be forgotten.
As what seems to have happened to that six-year-old son of a Philippine Air Force non-uniformed personnel, who was said to have been burnt with cigarettes by two air force personnel -- Sgt. Manuel Doria and A2C Rexdel Dimaculangan -- last July 14.
Soon after, the PAF here said it was already conducting an investigation about the alleged incident and when asked about the incident two days after it happened, PAF Colonel Isagani Silva, group commander of the PAF in Southern Mindanao, said he has yet to read the report made by the investigating body.
Nothing has been said about the incident since then except that a case was supposed to have been filed in court.
While we are not advocating a lynch mob, we as residents of Davao should stand fast against any abusive acts by any of the uniformed men assigned in our region.
Not that we hate them, but because they are being paid by government to be our protectors. Burning children with lighted cigarettes and mauling a drunk detainee to cause his death are not acts of protection.
It's sad, however, that those same uniforms that should signify a protector are often regarded with fear such that victims of abusive uniformed men would rather suffer in silence.
That is understood, considering that ordinary citizens are unarmed and do not have the threatening uniform and authority to wield. But, should we, as a community and as a region, allow this to continue? We just hope that your collective answer is no.
Indeed, there have been relatively fewer reports of police and military abuse as compared to the 1980s and the 1990s. While this observation will be loudly contradicted by the militants who stalk every human rights violation of uniformed men, we prefer to stick by this observation as indeed, there are relatively fewer abusive policemen and military.
We can attribute this to the militants, ordinary citizens, and local government officials who have stood their ground and demanded real service from these men who have taken their oath to serve the country.
Allowing abuses to go unacted on, however, is equivalent to allowing abuses to continue, maybe even increase. Let the elders among us thus remind this generation how it was to be under an abusive military and police so that we, as a community, will continue to demand true service and justice.
