EDITORIAL - Two types of justice

This is a textbook case of laxity in Philippine law enforcement. An Indian expatriate drives around in a car using someone else’s license plates, then hits a motorcycle, killing its driver and injuring the passenger. The car driver speeds away from the crime scene. What does the Philippine National Police do? It waits for the homicide suspect to surrender, even after establishing his identity as well as home and business addresses.

It’s been nearly two weeks since Henrix Bernardo was killed and Glenn Nacion Jr. was injured when their motorcycle was hit along busy McKinley Road by the car driven, according to the police, by businessman Rajiv Dargani. If Dargani wasn’t driving an Audi R8 and didn’t live in Makati’s posh Dasmariñas Village, perhaps the police might have had the energy to do its job and go after a homicide suspect.

Instead police probers are still waiting for Dargani to surface. If reports are accurate, he even managed to spend a few days in Hong Kong, with immigration agents unable to detain him because there was no warrant for his arrest even for a hit-and-run case.

If the shoe had been on the other foot and it was the homicide victim who lived in exclusive Dasmariñas and the suspect was driving the motorcycle, perhaps the police pursuit would have been more vigorous. Instead the cops themselves are giving excuses for Dargani’s use of borrowed license plates and failure to show up for investigation.

Homicide cases can be dropped if the victim shows no interest in pursuing the case in court. But before this happens, police must file a case and the suspect arrested. The law must first be enforced, to show that no one in this country is authorized to commit homicide and flee from the scene, or drive around with borrowed license plates. Drivers who can’t afford to live in exclusive gated villages have lost their licenses for lesser violations. Enforcing the law is supposed to ensure that lawbreakers will not repeat their offense.

The case of Dargani clearly illustrates that there are two types of justice in this country: one for the privileged few, and the other for the hoi polloi. This case shows that in the time of the wang-wang ban, VIP drivers no longer use sirens to part the traffic. They just run you over. And get away with it.