“Bang bang. He shot me down/ Bang bang. I hit the ground/ Bang bang. That awful sound/ Bang bang. My baby shot me down."
-- "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" by Sonny Bono, sung by Cher [1966]
THE list has expanded from the original plan of killing only drug lords and dealers. The war on drugs, core of President Duterte's campaign for change, now includes almost everyone linked to illegal substance, from drug maker to trafficker, protector, courier and peddler.
But others, outside and beyond the illegal drugs circle of criminals and suspects, may also be assailed: with threats, if not actual liquidation.
Even "endo" employers: business owners who hire contractual workers for less than six months to avoid paying regular benefits. An Inquirer.net story of Aug, 5 leads of with "End 'endo' or I will kill you: Rody."
But not oligarchs. One whom the president singled from among those who allegedly enriched themselves as cronies of presidents got another kind of threat. Duterte would just "destroy" him and his kind, maybe strip them of wealth and good name.
The bang-bang solution chooses targets, it would seem. Given the count of police shoot-out and vigilante victims made by Inquirer and ABS-CBN, more small-time pushers than "high-value" dealers were being killed: images of dumped bodies in t-shirts and slippers tell their status.
Drug lords, generals, mayors and other VIPs are named and shamed on nationwide TV. Erring cops are only "tortured" (a CPP-NPA claim) with the PNP chief's lectures.
For real
How about the "kill" threats? They might not be the real bang-bang that shoots you down. If you're a VIP, you might not bite the dust; you'd even survive the smearing or scolding.
If bang-bang were just child's play, grown-up's nostalgia or sound effects in crusader's propaganda. But the bodies and the blood are real.
(paseares@gmail.com)