And admit it — that was not an unusual occurrence in this country. Kidnappers, bank robbers, some caught in the act, others not — somehow cops manage to engage them in firefights, with the crooks always ending up dead. Often the public reaction to the killings was a shrug.
The only difference in the case of the alleged shootout in Ortigas was that it was caught on video and subsequently telecast to the nation for a better appreciation of the details.
But even after watching the video footage, admit it — you think the moral of the story for cops is not "thou shall not kill," but "thou shall not get caught," especially in the age of pocketsize, high-resolution digital camcorders.
The sentiment is not due to any inherent cultural predilection for injustice. Rather, it is a manifestation of public impatience over a weak justice system.
Yesterday they were hastily reinstated by the PNP chief as police teams belatedly gathered evidence to prove that all three were involved in carjacking. The cops are casting their net wider, probing the connections of the three men, tracing the owner of a gun allegedly found in the dead men’s car, raiding a motor shop where stolen vehicles are suspected to be cannibalized.
Accusations of a rubout have prompted the cops to dig up evidence to build a tight case on carjacking — against three dead men, one of whom has already been cremated.
Those pieces of evidence and carjacking victims now turning up against the three persuaded the PNP chief to lift the suspension of the 10 TMG members. Public attitude toward the three dead suspects also helped the TMG men.
"Suspect" is a word greatly misunderstood in this country. You may be a suspect, but there is no presumption of innocence here, especially in sensational crime cases. The average Pinoy is incapable of an impartial, objective appreciation of facts and evidence. We prefer to jump to conclusions; we prefer to condemn long before facts that might refute our conclusions are in. We rush to judgment based on what we glean from the news, coffee shops and that great tool for rumor-mongering and character assassination — text messages.
Thus even if three men who are merely suspected of carjacking are gunned down by cops, we immediately form our conclusions. Why did they flee from the cops? Flight is a sign of guilt. Why did they open fire on their pursuers? (This one has yet to be established.) One of them had a carjacking case that was dismissed, but justice can be bought in this country, and those three guys were rich.
As for the other two, who had no criminal record, what were they doing hanging out with someone accused of carjacking? Show us your friends and we’ll tell you who you are.
So we put two and two together, and even if it doesn’t add up, we give the cops a pat on the back. After all, carjacking has become a serious problem, especially in Metro Manila. And if the killing of three men — even if they were just suspects — can put the fear of God into the hearts of carjackers, then good riddance to those three. Carjacking victims won’t even wish that the dead rest in peace.
We don’t mind if the abuse is heaped on the bad guys. But there have been too many instances when abuse is perpetrated on the wrong guys, or when the innocent, including children, get caught in the crossfire. We don’t start worrying until we or someone dear to us become victims of police abuse.
Summary executions can also have diminishing returns. Alive, a carjacking suspect can point to accomplices, including fences, owners of garages and warehouses where vehicles are cannibalized, and personnel of the Land Transportation Office who issue spurious documents to cover stolen vehicles.
Of what use is a double-dead carjacking suspect?
If it’s any consolation to the cops, people sick of carjacking have an answer to that question: That’s one less public menace; may his tribe decrease.
Also, people argue that because the criminal justice system, like almost everything else in this weak republic, is dysfunctional, there is no guarantee that carjacking suspects — especially those from prominent families — will be sent to prison.
When justice can be bought, moneyed suspects naturally have the edge. If they can’t buy police investigators, prosecutors and judges, they can post bail, then leave the country, never to be seen again. Hold-departure orders are useless; a Chinese national on trial for the kidnapping of Jackie Tiu was mysteriously deported by immigration agents, and to this day we still don’t know who was responsible.
The pace of justice alone is frustrating. A carjacking case can take years to resolve. Why bother, when cops can simply gun down crooks? It’s quicker, you don’t add to the backlog of court cases, cops don’t have to keep attending hearings, and there’s no risk that a case might be dismissed on a technicality because of sloppy police work.
So if the cops say they pursued three men who were about to steal a vehicle, and the three were stupid enough to engage their heavily armed pursuers in a firefight, people tend to give the cops the benefit of the doubt.
It’s messy, it’s bloody, but for many Filipinos, it will have to do for now, until we can fix our justice system.
There are written rules of engagement for law enforcers. What we saw in Ortigas was the unwritten SOP in action. And we will see more of it, until we can have a justice system that works.