Malilong: Poor Joey--and me

HOW long has it been since they started killing drug dealers and, at times, even drug users? How many bullet-riddled bodies have we seen on television and in newspaper pages since the war on drugs began?

The numbers would have been more than enough to scare a reasonable man. But reason apparently does not exist where greed inhabits and so the illegal drugs trade continues. The other day, more than P16 million worth of shabu were seized in separate police operations in Cebu City alone.

I value human life. I do not support extrajudicial killing. I believe in the rule of law and in the due process that it guarantees. And yet sometimes I wonder if some people are in fact asking for it, daring the death squads to neutralize them, to borrow police lingo. Why would they continue drug-pushing knowing that they could be killed anytime?

If the drug problem were a disease, it would be cancer. Surgical precision is required in the campaign to uproot it otherwise like cancer, the diseased cells will multiply and the malignancy worsens.

That was why people cheered when President Duterte promised to continue the relentless war against drugs during his last State of the Nation Address. Yes, it has been and will almost certainly continue to be bloody but, they ask, what is the alternative?

Jail? Don’t we know that in jailing them, we are merely moving them to a safer, because it is well-guarded, base of operations? What did the police find out in the other day’s drug bust? The drug boss is operating from inside the Cebu City Jail!

We demand that the police always observe due process in dealing with criminals including the drug merchants. We ask them to follow the rules of engagement and practice maximum tolerance. But shouldn’t we also be as noisy in warning these criminals that death possibly awaits them if they do not desist from their trade? Not that I am endorsing shortcuts but even among policemen, patience has its limits.

•••

About three months ago, my son transferred P200,000 to my bank account to support my application for a visa. In less than 24 hours, the bank’s assistant branch manager called me. “Where did you get the money? How will you spend it?” Too stunned to reply, I could only mumble, talk to my niece, she’s also an assistant branch manager in your bank.

That is why I smiled when I learned that Cebu City Councilor Joey Daluz has been suspended for six months because he could not satisfactorily explain, according to the investigating officer, how he earned a little more than P1 million in one year. Tough luck for poor lawyers like us, Joey. It’s always a big deal when we earn a little more money than we usually do.

I am luckier because I am not a government employee or official. Other than a slightly bruised ego, I did not suffer any injury. I was asked to explain privately, although not too nicely (boy, that girl was rough!). Joey, on the other hand, was ordered to explain satisfactorily “under pain of law.” And while I got to keep my son’s money, Joey’s P1 million could probably be forfeited in favor of the government.

If they’re still there. The good thing about us, poor lawyers, is that when we earn a little money, we spend it, mostly all of it, immediately. Okay, make it as soon as possible.

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