Danilo Reyes

Today the rule of law in Davao, the largest city on Mindanao Island in the Philippines, is being threatened by a lack of law enforcement amid a rash of murders. For the past six months, the media has reported that more than 100 people have been the victims of summary killings. People suspected of having links to illegal drugs, of being involved in thefts, habitual criminals and even former drug offenders have been killed one after the other, a deadly trend that is still continuing. The perpetrators have become even bolder, however, preying on targets in broad daylight and calmly escaping on foot after the killing. Even people with no criminal records, the vulnerable sectors, like minors, women and the elderly, have not been spared as they too have become targets. Most of the victims though share one common trait: they are poor.

When the phenomenon surfaced a few years ago, people in Davao had mixed emotions and reactions over the killings. Those frustrated with the prevalence of crimes associated with drugs viewed the killings as an alternative form of fighting crime and ridding society of criminals. Thus, the people virtually condoned the killings.

Even local government officials took turns of using the vigilantes to try to frighten criminals out of the city. Criminals were warned not to engage in illegal activities, or otherwise, they too would face the same fate. This strategy has introduced, in essence, a culture of violence and impunity. An impression and mentality has been created that it is acceptable to kill suspected criminals.

Human rights defenders, which condemned these killings, have found themselves to be targets as well when activist Rashid Manahan was shot dead in August 2004 by vigilantes. Once a murder case is associated with a vigilante killing, even though it may not be, it will most likely be left unsolved. The implication is that no further investigation to identify, arrest and prosecute the real perpetrators will be initiated. Essentially, the perpetrators have been able to eliminate their targets and sow fear with impunity without any fear of being prosecuted. Because the public has largely accepted the use of "vigilante justice" to solve crimes, the very pillars of the criminal justice system - the community, law enforcement, prosecution, the judiciary and rehabilitation - do not function. They do not function in the sense that a person suspected of being an offender is killed even before they are brought to trial. Even those who have served jail terms for an offence they committed or have undergone rehabilitation have not been given a chance to live their life again. It has created the impression that a drug offender, even if they have rehabilitated themselves, remains a drug offender and that killing a drug offender is permissible.

Local officials have admitted their helplessness in stopping the killings. The mayor of Davao was quoted by the media as saying that "the people involved in illegal drugs are actually the key to stopping the killings," as if to say that the killings were a phenomenon of drug wars among criminals and that only when these wars stop will the killings cease as well. Such a statement discards the core function of law enforcement to investigate crimes and arrest suspected perpetrators as well as the failure of the city government to provide a safe place to live for its citizens who feel afraid.

It also suggests another major problem. The incidents of criminals killed without any trial, inefficient law enforcement and unsolved killings, a failure to prevent these killings from happening and the intentional or unintentional promotion of a culture of violence and impunity are manifestations of Davao's dysfunctional criminal justice system, conditions with which the people of the city have had to cope for many years.

This alarming trend is no longer confined to Davao though but is beginning to occur in the nearby cities of Digos in Davao del Sur Province and Panabo and Tagum Cities in Davao del Norte Province and even in Cebu in the Visayas region. Sadly, the reaction remains similar to that of Davao, i.e., silence among people in the community and the families of the dead, the inability or unwillingness of law enforcement personnel to take action and an admission of helplessness by local government officials. In many ways, this response is even more alarming than the killings themselves, for it signifies the death of the very rule of law itself. In this chaotic and violent context, one can only expect the killings to continue and "vigilante justice" to become even more deeply entrenched. With crimes being "solved" without trials, human rights in Davao and other communities become an endangered species as well and another victim of this lawlessness.