Teen killings reflect Davao’s ‘culture of violence’?

Click here to read Part I

( Second of a series )

DAVAO CITY — Pilgrim Guasa, program officer of the local child-rights group "Tambayan," says child-rights advocates are frustrated by the Davaoeños’ reaction to what are believed to be "extra-judicial" execution of minors.

Most of the callers in phone-in surveys conducted by local TV stations invariably say they are for the killings. Alice, an office clerk, echoes the sentiment of many here when she says the targeting of suspected criminals "somehow makes me feel safe. I know that anybody who does something bad to me in the street will someday meet his comeuppance."

Guasa theorizes that such an attitude could be traced in part to the city’s "history of being used as a laboratory for violence." By that, she is referring to the 1980s, when vigilante groups were roaming the city, summarily executing suspected communist rebels who in turn were killing policemen. The incidents prompted some people to call the Agdao district, where most of the killings were then occurring, as "Nicaragdao."

In a way, says Guasa, "the public has been desensitized by the summary executions. Most worrisome of all is that they perceive extra-judicial killings as a practical solution, especially when it is a means to maintain peace and order."

Librado, for her part, says her committee had asked the Davao City police to submit a report on the killings. All they got, she says, was a table containing a summary of the killings, which can be obtained from the police blotter. "No in-depth investigation, no determination of culpability," says Librado. "There was nothing new in it."

Most of the agencies approached by her committee to investigate the matter also said they could not do anything because there weren’t any complainants. She says even the National Bureau of Investigation only "took for granted" the committee’s resolution requesting for an investigation into the child killings.

Librado recounts, "I told them, We are talking here of specific killings targeting minors. There could be a trend here. We expect agencies to initiate all the moves so facts could be drawn."

"The funny thing is," she adds, "I was invited to a forum once where mothers and relatives told us that they were willing to file charges."

Gang members interviewed by the PCIJ said that criminal syndicates are behind some of the killings. In others, the hits are ordered by rival gangs. But the gang members also say many of the murders are contract killings. Says one gang member: "There was a time when the killers in the community would bid for the contract — those who bid the lowest gets to kill the prey."

Sometimes, the assassin is handpicked. Gani (not his real name), a member of one of the most notorious gangs in this city, was only 17 years old when he was given P500 to kill an alleged drug pusher. A few months later, he was asked again to kill another pusher. He was paid P350 for that one. He was approached a third time for another hit. But the victim survived, and those who contracted Gani refused to pay him the P350 they had promised him. Gani is now in hiding, after receiving death threats.

‘Butchers are killers?’

A former gang member who wants to be called "Bing" says that in a number of instances, the preferred killers are the butchers at Bankerohan, and their weapon of choice is the kolonyal, the butcher’s knife.

In the Tambayan’s tally of killings since March 1999, however, 30 or 73 percent of the total were done with a gun, usually a .45 caliber pistol, the same weapon issued to the police force. In such hits, the victim is usually shot in the head and at close range. Some child-rights advocates say it would not be a stretch to claim that these killings were done not by gang members, who like to use makeshift arrows and knives, but by people with considerable experience in handling firearms.

Gang members say that more often than not, the targets are first given a warning. Bing, for one, says that in 1998, a policeman living in their community approached him and said, "If you don’t mend your ways, you’re dead." Bing wasted no time in reforming himself. He now goes to school and hardly goes out with his gangmates anymore.

Clarita Alia also says, "I had been told not just once that I should tell my children to stop what they’re doing or else they’d be dead." She readily admits that her late sons had figured in snatchings, drugs and all sorts of petty crime in Bankerohan. She adds that their names eventually landed on the OB (order of battle) of the police.

Before Richard’s death on July 17 last year, police went to the Alia home to arrest the teenager for rape. Nanay Clarita asked them for evidence but when the police said they did not have any yet, she refused to turn over her child to them.

"They told me I was stupid for protecting my son," Nanay Clarita says. Richard had also been warned by unidentified men that his name was third on their list. It soon became common knowledge in Bankerohan that the Alia brothers were marked for liquidation. More than two weeks before Richard was killed, his siblings were already hearing that he was in danger.

Tambayan’s Guasa confirms that other victims were told beforehand of being in some list. "Before each killing, there were deliberate warnings to would-be victims that their names were on the list. They should stop or they would be killed," she says.

Many believe these "lists" are lists of drug pushers and users in the community that are oftentimes prepared by the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Badac).

It was then President Joseph Estrada who had created the Badac through an executive order, which also says that anyone in the barangay can report to the Council who the users or pushers are in the community.

These same lists end up in the hands of the Regional Anti-Narcotics Office, the police and local officials. But Guasa says that the problem with the Badac lists is that anybody can just point a finger on someone without presenting proof. "If the police have a case against somebody on the list, why not file a case against that person?" she asks. "Why supplant due process with these lists?"

Nanay Clarita herself asks between sobs, "My sons may have committed crimes, but why are they being butchered? The people who do this – why do they think the lives of my sons are not worth anything? Is it because we’re dirt poor? Is this why due process does not apply to us?" (To be continued)