COUPLES suspected of selling or using illegal drugs are paraded in Tanauan City, Batangas, as part of the city government’s campaign to shame criminals. PHOTO COURTESY OF TANAUAN CITY GOVERNMENT
Do you want Papa to give you baon (school allowance)?” Pedro Balaba Jr. asked his children before he left their house in Tanauan City in Batangas province one night in January.
But how and where he would get the money was a question his wife, Girlie Lopez, learned not to ask.
The next morning, Balaba, 28, did not come home. Instead, his body, riddled with bullets, turned up under a footbridge a few meters from the barangay hall of Darasa in Tanauan. No one saw the killing or heard gunshots fired, but a bicycle that was not his was found beside him.
Balaba’s death on Jan. 26 was briefly recorded in the barangay logbook. The city police did not have any suspect, leaving it as another cold case.
“We could not say [who was behind it],” a resigned Lopez said. “Maybe there were too many people angry at him.”
Market thief
Lopez, 34, met Balaba, a native of Nueva Ecija province, about five years ago. They had four children, the youngest a 10-month-old boy. Balaba earned loose change from being a porter at the city market, she said.
Life was hard that Lopez’s monthly salary of P4,900 as a caretaker of the barangay hall was barely enough. That might have driven her husband to steal, she said.
Lopez also said Balaba sometimes used illegal drugs. “He was an occasional user,” she said in Filipino.
According to police records, Balaba was arrested on July 4, 2013, for stealing vegetables valued at P2,800, and again on Feb. 26, 2014, for stealing boxes of tuyo (dried fish), worth P16,000, from a market vendor. On the second offense, he spent a year and two months in jail.
Shame campaign
Prison time, though, was not the only form of punishment he would receive. In March 2014, the city government paraded him around the market with a placard branding him a magnanakaw (thief) and pieces of dried fish dangling from the waist.
“I felt sorry for him,” Lopez recalled. “But I pitied my children more because they were bullied in school.”
Balaba was the first crime suspect who underwent public shaming. The city government called it a “walk of shame,” resembling the medieval walk of atonement.
The public humiliation drew varied reactions. Some supported it while others criticized it as mental torture.
In July 2015, a man arrested for stealing P3,000 worth of cable wires also took Balaba’s route. This year, the walk of shame was staged six more times and more frequently. It involved one suspected rapist and users of illegal drugs.
Lesson
MAYOR ANTONIO HALILI
“[My intention] is to warn people. If you see these people [tagged as drug users], you would not want any of your family near them. The public has the right to that information,” Mayor Antonio Halili told the Inquirer.
It was also meant to teach crime suspects a lesson so they would not repeat their offense, he said.
But Balaba, after his release, went back to stealing. “He used to carry this long knife and steal bikes from houses,” said a village watchman, who requested anonymity.
The shame parades became frequent and “thematic” by the time then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte won as President.
On May 23, the city government forced 11 drug suspects to walk under arches that read “Flores de Pusher,” simulating the traditional Santacruzan.
On June 19, the theme was “June Brides and Grooms,” involving seven suspected drug users. The women in the batch were forced to carry a bouquet. It was an “Independence Day” theme on July 7, involving six drug suspects.
Gerard Laresma, Tanauan information officer, said the city wanted to add a little “drama” to draw public attention.
“This began even before [the Duterte administration started office]. I declared a war on drugs since I took office,” said Halili, who won a second term in the May elections under the Liberal Party.
The mayor said Tanauan was once a haven of illegal drug trade. “I used to send them (suspected drug pushers) letters. I invited them to my office and talked them into changing their ways. There were some who listened,” he said.
This method, he said, forced pushers to leave, with some transferring to nearby towns and cities in Batangas. “I can’t do anything about that anymore (since) it’s already outside my jurisdiction,” he said.
Mayor’s group
Those paraded on the streets of Tanauan are only those arrested by the Mayor’s Anti-Crime Group (MACG), a group of about 70 civilians employed by the city government. Some of the MACG members have been issued firearms to augment the police force in curbing crime in the city.
After the walk, the suspects are immediately turned over to police officers, who would file charges in court and detain them.
Halili handpicked Allan Fajardo, a wealthy trader engaged in the scrapping business, to head the MACG.
Fajardo’s older brother, Rolando, was the suspected leader of a kidnap group behind the 1986 abduction of Japanese trader Noboyuki Wakaoji. Another brother, Polmark, is the village chief of Suplang in Tanauan and president of the Association of Barangay Councils.
“He is not his brother’s keeper, so to speak,” Halili said. “I needed someone with determination. [Allan] is very disciplined and he is very ‘clean.’”
The mayor denied that the MACG was his private armed group.
Incorrigible
So far, 35 suspected criminals have been forced to take the walk of shame. According to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), some are still detained.
“Whatever the law mandates has to be strictly adhered to by government agencies and instrumentalities. They are meting out punishments [even when suspects are not yet convicted],” said Jacqueline dela Peña, CHR director in Southern Tagalog region.
The CHR filed charges against Halili and the MACG for violating the human rights law on the first two instances. It is still investigating the rest of the cases, while closely monitoring the status of the victims.
“These people are incorrigible,” said Halili, who is earning the reputation as “Junior Duterte” for being tough on his policies, akin to the tough stance shown by President Duterte against crime in his 23 years as mayor of Davao City.
In defense of his campaign, Halili said the city’s crime rate significantly went down by deterring would-be criminals.
While he did not provide figures, Supt. Robert Baesa, the newly appointed city police chief, said the crime rate was lower than those recorded in Batangas and Lipa cities.
Tanauan’s Facebook account shows a video footage of a 3-minute interview with Balaba behind bars last year. A male voice could be heard asking him questions, such as “Did you think the CHR was right to accuse Mayor (Halili)?” Or “in short, are you admitting your offenses?”
In the footage, Balaba said he deserved what the mayor did to him and promised to change his ways once released. He repeatedly asked for help to find a job so he could send his children to school.
Balaba already lost that chance.