Back on the fringe, again

Published in Mindanao Times 06/02/09

Davao City’s problem on human rights has been around for a long time now, but one that’s often left unnoticed. Fortunately, it was pulled out on the fringe and brought into the mainstream when the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) launched a widely publicized public inquiry on the unchecked killings. But from the looks of it, it seems to be back again to where it was before: on the fringe.

Just two months ago, when the CHR came here to investigate the series of killings in the city allegedly done by the Davao Death Squad (DDS), Davao City became the talk of the town. National broadsheets ran headlines regarding the CHR investigation. Newspaper columnists and cartoonists, human rights advocate and full fledged activists, street philosophers and street sweepers also joined the fray.

Times have changed. All this fuss about what CHR Chair Leila de Lima called the “most audacious human rights violation of our times” seems to have died down. The issue on extrajudicial killings, once the topic that preoccupied us, is now gone from the public mind. Except for some media outlets that still report the continuing investigation of the CHR, the rest is back to business as usual.

This is appalling because, as Kenneth Roth, Director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said, “To defend human rights effectively, you got to stick with an issue. If you just sort of put up a protest and go home, the governments could figure out that they could weather that issue, and then proceed as they always did.”

Despite Davao City’s standing as a premier city in Southern Mindanao, it continues to be hounded by its battered human rights record. And over the years, there have been no signs of improvement. In fact, reports released by international human rights watchdogs show just how worse the situation has gotten.

Back in 2007, Philip Alston, a professor of law at New York University and Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, visited the Philippines to investigate the rampant extra-judicial killings in the country. After spending ten days in the country in February 2007, he submitted a report that came to be known as simply the Alston Report.

In it, Prof. Alston noted, “Since 1998 when civil society organizations began keeping careful records, over 500 people have been killed by the death squad. Up until 2006, these victims were generally shot; since then, stabbings have become more common.” Prof. Alston was convinced these killings are officially-sanctioned. “No one involved covers his face,” he said. “The men who warn mothers that their children will be the next to die unless they make themselves scarce turn up on doorsteps undisguised. The men who gun down or, and this is becoming more common, knife children in the streets almost never cover their faces. In fact, for these killers to wear “bonnets” is so nearly unheard of that the witnesses I interviewed did not think to mention the fact until I asked.”

How the DDS operate was yet unclear until a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) — “You Can Die Anytime: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao” — came. Billed as the most detailed account on the workings of the DDS, the HRW report backed up Prof. Alston’s earlier claims. Based on detailed, internally consistent, and credible accounts, the HRW report described the membership, structure, and equipment of DDS; how the recruitment and training are done; how the targets are identified; how the death squad operates; how it is financed; how and why death squad members themselves are killed.

Yet denials by local government officials and police and military officers abound. They dismissed the claim that DDS exists as a figment of someone else’s imagination. These killings, in the words of one police officer, could be the works of “gangs, syndicated crime groups, and communists.” But people believed otherwise.

Davaoeños are well aware that there can only be one group responsible for the deaths of hundreds of alleged criminals: DDS. If they are not outraged, it is because, as Roth put it, they find “the need for such brutality in approaching the nation’s crime problem.” “But,” Roth adds, “it’s not only wrong to summarily take someone’s life; it’s also extraordinarily dangerous.”

The issue on extrajudicial killings has dragged on for years. It’s hard to tell for sure when it will end. As we search for ways out of this quagmire, perhaps the best thing to do is to acknowledge first that DDS does exist; that this organized group is bent on wiping criminals—suspected or otherwise—off the face of the earth. And for those who think this is just all right since the benefits far outweigh the costs anyway, think again. As Roth said:

“Contrary to expectations, the Davao Death Squad has not reduced crime. In the decade since it began operating, crime in Davao City has mushroomed ten times faster than the population. That’s not surprising, since contempt for the law breeds further lawlessness.

“Moreover, once the police start playing God, the temptation becomes enormous for them to expand the class of victims. Today, the city’s supposed low-life; tomorrow, political or personal enemies. As Latin America of the 1980s showed, the business of death squads can consume a country, creating an environment where no one is safe.”