Special services

Look what happens when you become a frontrunner in the presidential race.

Suddenly people are taking Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s boasts seriously enough for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to announce it may launch an investigation into the executions of criminals he claims to have carried out in his turf, Davao City.

The administration Liberal Party, whose candidate is back to languishing near the bottom of the surveys for the presidential race, initially lambasted Duterte for his human rights record. But perhaps wondering if the human rights record was in fact propelling Duterte to the top of the heap, the LP expressed doubts about the kills claimed by the mayor-turned-presidential bet.

His honesty challenged, Duterte came out swinging, of course at administration standard bearer Mar Roxas. Duterte painted his LP rival yellow – and that doesn’t refer to the party’s campaign color. People afraid to kill or be killed have no business running for president, Duterte sniffed.

There must be a more nuanced version of this opinion about the presidency and sending people to their death, but Duterte isn’t big on nuanced explanations. In any case, his core followers lap up such verbal jousting between their candidate and his rivals.

Unwittingly or not, Duterte is making the race look like one between the masses and the elite, as embodied by Roxas and his old rich pedigree.

Maybe Roxas will himself start cussing in public to burnish his pang-masa credentials, as he did in one of those rallies against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during her presidency. The rallies were led by Corazon Aquino and held mostly in Makati, turf of her loyalist Jejomar Binay.

Cops who were unimpressed by Roxas when he was secretary of the interior and local government used to complain that he actually cussed a lot and raised his voice in bawling them out. Maybe the cops were identified with Roxas’ nemesis, disgraced national police chief Alan Purisima.

If Duterte maintains his lead in the next reputable survey, will the LP adopt a “no more Mr. Nice Guy” tack for its standard bearer?

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Malacañang and the LP may have nothing to do with the CHR plan to probe Duterte, even if the current human rights chief is a former LP official. But suspecting a Palace hand is inevitable, considering what has happened to presidential candidates who top surveys.

Sen. Grace Poe has openly sighed that she would not be facing her current woes if she had agreed to be Roxas’ running mate.

Binay broke a cardinal rule in a presidential race in this country, which is to announce your intention to run only at the eleventh hour. He peaked early and was the first to see the kitchen sink thrown at him.

Malacañang, reacting to Duterte’s surge in the latest survey, said the mayor was not yet even sure of qualifying for the race. Some quarters considered this an ominous statement.

If Duterte gets in, he may see his financial supporters facing all sorts of scrutiny by the government and his political allies being suspended by Malacañang, as the opposition United Nationalist Alliance is seeing. The opposition mayor of vote-rich Cebu is suspended for 60 days for tearing down a traffic island and street lighting project. Meanwhile, LP president and transport chief Joseph Emilio Abaya is spared from indictment in signing a $150-million maintenance contract without public bidding for the glitch-prone Metro Rail Transit 3.

Similar things may be ahead for Poe if the Supreme Court allows her to run.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago is not in anyone’s crosshairs because so far she is ranked even lower than the administration candidate in the surveys. But if Poe and Duterte are both eliminated, Senator Miriam could see a ratings surge, boosted by the ranks of those who plan to vote for anyone but the candidate who wants to become president by default.

Then someone might find an excuse to have Senator Miriam disqualified as well.

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Under normal circumstances, Duterte has little to fear from a CHR probe. Image-wise his rights record is no secret and is in fact a factor in his popularity.

Also, the CHR is largely a paper tiger. It can conduct probes, receive evidence and make a lot of noise, but it cannot prosecute. If it had judicial or quasi-judicial powers, perhaps we’d see someone held to account for gross human rights violations during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, whose victims include the recently retired CHR head. Perhaps punishment would be meted quicker on “the Butcher,” retired Army general Jovito Palparan.

A big deterrent to human rights advocacy in this country is the popularity of extrajudicial methods of law enforcement. Pinoys generally look the other way when cops gun down known troublemakers: carjackers, kidnappers, notorious drug dealers, child rapists.

The system is prone to abuse, as we have seen in the massacres in Maguindanao in 2009 and in Atimonan in 2013 in which cops were direct participants.

But because the criminal justice system is notoriously slow, inefficient, prone to corruption and generally unreliable, Pinoys tend to support short cuts in eliminating lawbreakers. Some of the wealthiest Pinoys have even paid cops to execute criminals.

Our voters go for candidates who can deliver such special public services. This has propelled the likes of Panfilo Lacson to high office and even Palparan to the House of Representatives.

Now it’s Duterte promising swift justice. It’s a powerful come-on in this land where swift justice is as elusive as inclusive economic growth. Duterte’s supporters will not let the CHR get in the way.