KILL KILL KILL (25)

KADUDA-DUDA ang balitang tangkang pagpatay kay Donald Trump sa kampanya ng panguluhan ng Estados Unidos. Maraming tanong sa assassination plot kay Trump. Ma lalong nalukuban ng matinding duda na balitang rehistradong Republican ang gunman. Hanggang hindi ipaliwanag mabuti ang nangyari, hindi maalis ang matinding duda.

***

PAGPAPATULOY ito ng pangalawang tsapter ng aking aklat “KILL KILL KILL Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines; Crimes Against Humanity v. Rodrigo Duterte Et. Al.” Tinalakay ko ang ilang yugto ng karahasan at kalupitan sa ilang patayan ng giyera kontra droga.

DEATH BY VIGILANTES

KRISTITA Padual, 30, was eating dinner in an open air “turo-turo” restaurant along the 20-lane Commonwealth Avenue, the country’s widest road, in Quezon City, when two motorcycle-riding men in tandem, garbed in black shirts with black bonnets and masks to hide their faces, arrived at the restaurant. That was around 8:30 pm of March 3, 2017. The back riders quietly aimed their guns at the customers. Shots rang out and two victims fell. Kristita died with her head on the monobloc chair she used, while her body was in a kneeling position. The other victim had his body sprawling on the ground.

Vernie Estanislao, Kristita’s cousin, told the author that a diner seated beside Kristita saw the approaching two motorcycle-riding men in tandem with the back riders drawing guns. She warned “ayan na sila; magtago kayo (here they are; hide).” While diners chose to run away, Kristita ignored her, saying “hayaan mo sila (let them)” and continued taking her dinner. It was her undoing. The first tandem approached and shot her without any word or provocation, while the second tandem shot a guy, who was seated about ten meters away from Kristita. They both died instantly. The assassins were believed to be members of an anti-drug vigilante group because Kristita had no known enemies.

The killers were never identified. Because they were not identified, police did not file any charges against anybody. Neither did police work to find out the identities of the assassins. The two cases of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) died a natural death because police had nowhere to start. It was a theme that has kept on repeating on victims of EJKs by unknown vigilante groups.

What added to the injury was the aftermath of Kristita’s murder. Her family seemed so poor to give her a decent wake and burial. It took them at least two weeks to raise funds to pay for the services of the police-selected funeral parlor. Even foreign journalists, who visited her wake in pursuit of a story, had to shell out modest amounts to help her burial. Kristita’s death was the subject of feature articles by several publications.20 The articles reported not just the police incompetence to track down her killers, but her family’s difficulties to give her a decent burial.

DYNAMICS OF DRUG TRADE

SINCE the Payatas community represents Philippine society, where a big part of the community lives on a level lower than the povery line to keep body and soul together, drug trade there has persisted to have its own dynamics. At least two syndicates or groups control the drug trade in the Payatas community. One group is led by a certain individual, who sports the alias “Muslim” and another group by “Chua.” These drug syndicates have their own organized structures, a coterie of middlemen and runners, who do the peddling, and lawyers, who work for the release of runners, who have encountered problems with law enforcers. Drug lords Muslim and Chua are not known to the community. They do not appear publicly. Their subalterns appear instead for them, creating a mystique in their personae.

The Payatas market is big even for a single controlling trader. Hence, the two groups do not appear to operate in conflict. They tolerate each other to ensure their continued divided dominance of the Payatas market. The kind of meth (shabu) they peddle differ in quality to indicate that they do not get their supply from a single source. A set of police officers protect them and, in most likelihood, they know and tolerate each other. There were times these rival police officers had differing opinions, but they always ended up settling their differences for the peace of the community and continuing drug operations. Hence, drug trade has remained flourishing there. This balance was somewhat disrupted when a number of police officers from Davao City arrived in 2016 purportedly to augment the police forces there.

The imbalance somewhat put the Payatas-based police officers in untold discomfort because the reassigned Davao City-based police forces had different orders and they came directly from then PNP Director-General Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa. The PNP generals, who were then assigned to handle the PNP National Capital Region Command, did not like it because it meant even their orders could be rescinded off especially if they ran counter to dela Rosa’s. As PNP director-general, dela Rosa personally assumed control of the Payatas community especially on issues of EJKs. This was unusual for a PNP top honcho.

Fr. Danny Pilario, one of the four Roman Catholic priests assigned in the Payatas community at the height of the war on drugs in 2016-2017 period, claimed to have watched with combined trepidation and bewilderment the developments of Duterte’s bloody but failed war on drugs there. He claimed to have seen how the loss of breadwinners has devastated many families, which were already living below the marginal level. Because of the government’s refusal and inability to help the families of EJK victims, the local parish of the Roman Catholic Church has formed a non-government organization (NGO) to attend to their needs. The Solidarity for Faith has initiated livelihood projects there to employ family members of EJK victims, teach them employable skills, and keep their body and soul together.

Employed family members of EJK victims sewed clothes, personal protective equipment (PPEs), face masks, disrags, and other disposable items. They were sold to the outside world, providing the wherewithal to enable many families to survive hunger associated with unproductivity and lack of employment. According to Fr. Pilario, they were criticized that the daily income was even below the legislated minimum wage, while they worked for the maximum eight hours of work. But he justified this arrangement, saying that although their daily income did not reach the minimum wage level, their jobs ensured they had food on the table to meet the barest minimum. They did not have to go hungry, he said.

VATICAN TWO. Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario is a Roman Catholic priest, who practices what he preaches. He knows and understands the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, which have turned the Church doctrines upside down. From an instrument of the elite before the Second World War, the Roman Catholic Church has come to embrace its role as the defender of the poor and the defenseless. Hence, the phrase “preferential option for the poor” has evolved to become its operational basis. His involvement in the Payatas community is just a manifestation of his increasing role in the majority Church.

Fr. Pilario is a member of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) in the Philippines. He is an associate professor and dean of St. Vincent School of Theology at Adamson University in Quezon City. He was born and raised in Oslob, Cebu province. Fr. Pilario earned an undergraduate philosophy degree at Adamson University, a bachelor’s in theology at the University of Santo Tomas, and a master’s and doctoral degree at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. (Itutuloy)