EDITORIAL - Zero political killings

When officials of the Philippine National Police and the Department of the Interior and Local Government want to stop illegal gambling, they warn PNP commanders that they would be sacked if jueteng operations are found in their jurisdictions. These days the DILG chief challenges critics to prove that jueteng, traditionally used to raise funds for election campaigns, is again rampant nationwide. There isn’t going to be any “three strikes and you’re out” policy against PNP coddlers of jueteng operations any time soon.

But the principle of command responsibility underpinning the “three strikes and you’re out policy” can be used for other problems, such as stopping forced disappearances and unexplained killings. Last Thursday President Arroyo told new graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy that she wanted to bring down to zero the number of political killings in the country. She should issue a similar order to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, whose members continue to be implicated in extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, the latest of which was the brutal murder of Rebelyn Pitao, the 20-year-old daughter of a New People’s Army commander. The AFP has placed under investigation several of its intelligence operatives in connection with the murder. 

Apart from the AFP, political kingpins and influential crooks, including jueteng lords, drug dealers and smugglers, have been linked to the harassment, kidnapping and murder of militant activists, journalists and legal professionals over the years. These politicians and crooks wield control over the criminal justice system in their respective turfs. They can intimidate or buy the silence of witnesses. These are the main reasons for the failure to solve most of the killings, disappearances and harassment cases. In turn that failure has encouraged similar attacks, creating a culture of impunity.

If the government is serious in stopping the murders, the President can tell PNP and AFP commanders that their jobs are on the line for every political killing or forced disappearance perpetrated in their respective turfs. Catching the culprits – both the killers and the brains – can be a mitigating factor in the commanders’ professional prospects. There can be no sacred cows here: political allies and campaign donors of the administration cannot be spared. Unless this is done, that order for zero political killings will be nothing but rhetoric.