Full Force of the Law

Re-published Editorial from MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR dated June 4, 2014 with friendly permission of the publisher Marietta F. Siongco.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte expressed anew his iron-fist stance against police scalawags in Davao City, most especially those involved in illegal drugs and "akyat bahay" burglaries that have hit a number of residences. His warning is as grim as his previous ones: policemen who are found to be involved in such crimes will be killed, a concrete display of an extraordinary mayor being so vocal about putting the law into his own hands. Davaoenos have already gotten used to Duterte's hard-hitting pronouncements against unlawful elements and even welcomes them with recognition and adulation. There are those, however, who disagree.

Duterte's confirmattion that some Davao City cops are involved in illegal drugs and are in cahoots with notorius robbers is certainly frustrating, and it is understandable that many accept the need to warn such cops that they could face liquidation if they do not stop. Policemen, after all, are supposed to protect people, not harm them. These erring policemen, regardless of their rank, are a bane to society.

But we do live in a democracy. Our system does not allow for the extrajudicial settlement of debts to society. Government itself is bound by law, and officials must show themselves as the prime practitioners and followers of the legal process. Besides, what sweeter way to punish a rogue cop than to throw the book at him and have him face the full force of the law?