Seares: Silence of lawyers, doctors on killings

"Extrajudicial killings? They're just a perception... Take them with a grain of salt."

-- Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, interviewed on CNN

"While we condemn the killings (elsewhere) around the world, I am appalled at the silence (over) vigilante killings."

--A car sales executive, quoted in "Inquirer"

THE first: Pastor Quiboloy's dismissive response to the problem of extrajudicial killings (#EJK), the attitude of those who think there's a larger goal, to rid the country of crime, with human rights not entirely lost ("you can still sue").

The second: a professional worker's shock over the spate of killings, the attitude of those who worry over human lives taken away with impunity, no one held to account.

Also in first category are those who cheer the bloodbath and, hiding in digital anonymity, want to murder those who disagree. And in the second: those who oppose openly and on record opposed the "salvagings."

In between are shades of indifference: from those who worry only over what personally affects them (job, family problems) to those who disapprove but would like to see how Duterte would pull it off.

But how do you explain lawyers, schooled in due process of law, and doctors, taught to save human life, who're defending it or being silent?

The group of lawyers that has spoken out is not the Integrated Bar. And no medical society has said a word.

Being quiet

Ambivalence probably explains it: they are fed up with a system that has failed to stamp out crime and would like to see "real change" and yet, by their core values, they must abhor the executions even if many victims may not be innocent or are just drug runners, not the lords.

At least, the lawyers and doctors groups are being quiet, not dismissing the executions as Quiboloy does or hooting down protests as internet trolls do.

(paseares@gmail.com)