Extrajudicial killing happens when state authorities kill a person without legal process.
To say that Katipunan Supremo Andres Bonifacio was the first victim of extrajudicial killing is to trivialize the controversial issue of EJK, and this was what actor Robin Padilla did during a television interview on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022.
To label the death of a revolutionary hero as an extrajudicial killing shows Padilla’s simple understanding of history.
Reading the pages of the history book again could help: Bonifacio’s death in 1897 happened in the heat of the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire.
The Tondo native Katipunan founder was executed after he refused to recognize the revolutionary government of Emilio Aguinaldo, the Caviteño Katipunan general.
Gat Andres was accused of sedition and treason by the Katipunan faction loyal to Aguinaldo called Magdalo. He had been put to trial, though it was just for a show, before his conviction and execution alongside his brother.
Bonifacio’s execution was a result of a power struggle within the revolutionary forces. His death was a result of politics, one could say.
As for the pushers killed during anti-narcotics operations, they died without being able to defend themselves in court.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency reported that from July 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2021, 6,225 persons died during operations.
The deaths of thousands of suspected pushers, as what the law enforcers often said, came after they resisted arrest by shooting it out with the operatives, tried to pull out a gun or tried to shoot at them. The Filipino word for this, popularized by law enforcers, is “nanlaban.”
Padilla, a Duterte supporter seeking a Senate seat, said extrajudicial killings are part of the government’s campaign against criminality, including the current administration’s war on drugs.
Duterte’s brutal drug war, said the actor, has been successful.
Perhaps, for Padilla, the deaths of suspected criminals is his only measure of success in the campaign against crime and drug trafficking.
Has the bloody campaign put an end to the drug trade in the Philippines? No. It is still a problem until this day. It will still be a problem once President Duterte steps out of Malacañang. Killing is not the solution, apparently.
Padilla, who had been in jail, also made an outrageous claim, without presenting proof: The underground economy of the illegal drug trade is bigger than the Philippine economy.
Making statements without evidence is one of the hallmarks of senselessness.