We need to return to the rule of law!

Last weekend, we had a wonderful 10th Anniversary reunion/recollection with our classmates from the Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) Marriage Encounter no.29th at the OAD Retreat Center in Tabor Hills. Out of the 26 couples that took the ME 10 years ago, we could still count on 11 couples to take a mini-marriage encounter in order to reminisce our spiritual journey, whether we have persevered in our faith or not.

It was truly heartwarming to learn that God has given different charisms to our M. E. 29 members, that they serve the Lord in many different ways. That many of our classmates have kept the faith should give the BLD District Servant Leaders the motivation to search more lost souls and bring them back into the fold of our Lord Jesus Christ. We especially thank Fr. Robin Dumaguit for facilitating our short recollection (also to my neighbor Fr. Roy Cimagala for helping officiate our Sunday Mass) and showing us that the OAD can handle big retreats for the Cebuano community.

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I was a bit amused about that incident which happened to my good friend, Assistant City Prosecutor Oscar Capacio last Friday where he had to pull out his firearm and fire a warning shot to save a snatcher from being lynched by an angry mob in Lahug. We can easily dismiss or even justify the actions of the angry mob against the snatcher, as there are too many snatchers prowling our streets. A few of them would even kill their victims just to rob a cellphone! We still can’t forget what happened to Ruby Jade Ruba last March 6 who was shot in cold blood near the Cebu Doctors Hospital a few weeks before she would have graduated. That was a petty crime elevated into murder.

 I do not believe in mob rule because we’re supposed to be a country of laws and not of men, however because of our snail’s paced Justice system, we cannot blame our people if they take the law into their own hands.

Now that this snatcher has been caught, just imagine the tedious process the accuser has to go through just to file an attempted robbery charge. That means finding a lawyer to prosecute the fellow, which means time and money. Even if the snatcher gets convicted, how long would he stay in jail? The court case would certainly take a longer time.

Worse, if this snatcher doesn’t get rehabilitated (with the way most of our jails are run, except the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, there’s a huge chance that the snatcher will come out of jail more hardened than before) who knows he may come looking for his accuser with a vengeance and commit a more serious crime? This is why we would like to implore our judges to do something about speeding up small crimes so more people would report petty crimes and hopefully, these petty criminals would not mutate into bigger crimes.

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 It is sad that the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) had this controversial rift between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and the strikers of the Gaisano Capital South, especially that the Mayor was “packing his piece”, which has been questioned by ALU-TUCP lawyers. This case shouldn’t have been blown out of proportion, but it seems to have escalated even to the point of hizzoner’s asking the City Council to ban masked men during strikes.

Call it timely that finally Mayor Osmeña has touched an issue that we have long known before, but felt powerless to stop this practice. My reckoning on this is that, whenever there are strikes, it is the usual practice of labor unions to show to the workers that there are many aggrieved workers who are joining the strike. But in truth, they are workers from other companies hence they have to wear masks; otherwise the workers might realize that these strikers do not belong to their company.

Masked men and women are also very much in use by left-leaning groups and labor organizations in order to hide their real identities, which could match military intelligence reports on persons doing subversive activity. Finally, what about those motorcycles dubbed Habal-habals? A lot of them still wear masks to hide their real identities. They blame the scorching sun, but in truth, they want to hide the real truth that they are using the habal-habals as a convenient cover for their more sinister activities. I’m supporting this cause because it’s about time that we prevent masked men from roaming our streets with impunity. We need to return to the rule of law!