The good side of rectification

About two weeks ago, I wrote about a disturbing incident. It took place at a pay parking area. Following my article, Ms. Molly Manaloto, (I hope I got her name correctly spelled) a high-strung company representative called me up, by telephone, to "explain". I was so very humbled. Who was I unto whom an explanation be offered? To my happy surprise, my caller was (actually is) a daughter of a family friend. Anyway, since the matter was already public, I suggested to Molly that if her company really wanted the public to know what happened, "the explanation" be put to writing and sent to this paper.

I relayed the information to Debbie, my opinion editor and she assured me that Molly's explanation, should it come, would find prominent space. Of course, this paper is known for its fairness. But nothing came.

Instead, the other day, Molly called up again and asked for the plate number of the vehicle I then used. Frankly, I forgot which particular car I drove but I surmised that her call could be in connection with an inquiry her company was making on the matter. I recalled her first call whence she promised to follow up my story and investigate her underlings.

Molly, in our first conversation, candidly admitted that her company used old tickets. The issuance of altered tickets was not the handiwork of unauthorized personnel with malicious or fraudulent intent. Her company was aware of that fact of recycling unused materials. In her language though, she said that they did not plan, at all, to cheat the government. They were just forced by the emergency of their tickets running out before new ones were available. Because the tickets were old and unused, the company had to correct, by hand, some of the entries therein.

Molly, by calling, demonstrated that, from time to time, there are systems' lapses happening even in the best of corporations. That is normal. It is the reaction that separate successful enterprises from the rest. Leading companies react to the lapses with objective analysis and evaluations. No effort is spared to rectify systems' flaws.

Systems lapses, of sort, and corresponding rectifications, are not absolutely strange in courts of law. They do happen in judicial systems. I am happy to reiterate another very happy news about rectification. I refer to the story of Alan Crotzer, an American who has been in jail for 24 years. His incarceration was a consequence of his being declared guilty of rape and robbery. Recently, he was found innocent of the accusation and was set free.

Consider that there was a guilty verdict upon Crotzer pronounced by a court of law, after a presumed meticulous trial. A day in court, the lingo lawyers like to harp on, was afforded to him. He faced his accusers and the court listened to his side of the case. Yet, he was found guilty and meted a 130-year sentence. But, after almost a generation, he was adjudged innocent.

In our midst, there are vigilante killers who have taken upon themselves the right to act like God. They are not judges so they have no opportunity of hearing the side of persons accused of anything. These vigilante killers do not form a part of the justice system of the land. They do not follow any rule book and worse, they are only known by the brutality with which they carry out summary killings.

Imagine if the Cebu City vigilante killers, in acting like God, determined that the parking pay personnel of my pay parking story committed robbery and viciously killed them. Would the plausible explanation by Molly have resurrected those parking attendants? Or worse, imagine that these Cebu City summary executioners decided that Crotzer, assuming him to be a Cebuano, was a menace to society and found occasion to scuttle his head with bullets from caliber 45 pistols, would rectification, coming after more than two decades serve any purpose at all?

The existence of vigilantes in our city is vomiting because their vicious killings prevent the chance of rectification.