Rules of engagement

EDITORIAL 

Looking at the way the police, military, intelligence and other armed services of this country are conducting “operations” against so-called criminals or “enemies of the state,” one wonders if we are in Mexico or any other Banana Republic where not only criminals or combatants but also civilians are killed with impunity.   

Last week, cause-oriented groups in north Luzon condemned the arrest of an alleged member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army who was charged in court for the bloody April 2012 ambush in Tinoc, Ifugao where 13 government forces were killed, saying he is a  member of the left-leaning partylist group Piston.

Saying VirgilioCorpuz is not a rebel, non-government and civil society groups urged the government to stop “vilification campaigns” against so-called anti-government individuals and groups. Corpuz is now being tried by the Regional Trial Court branch 14 in Lagawe, Ifugao.

Corpuz, the Baguio-based NGO Rural Development Council-Kaduami (RDC-Kaduami) said, was arrested in Santiago City, Isabela on Jan. 4, then transferred to Ifugao the next day.

The RDC-Kaduami said Corpuz was their member who helped them assist marginalized communities threatened by land grabbing, food insecurity and disenfranchisement.

Good for Corpuz since he was only arrested. Others before him like James Balao, also an NGO worker in the Cordillera was abducted by alleged military or police personnel and has not surfaced since – like others in the country who were suspected of having links with the CPP-NPA.   

From the days of the Red Scorpion Group and Kuratong Baleleng, law enforcers have found themselves in trouble for taking no prisoners in their operations. Such operations can be defended in crowded areas such as shopping malls, where closed circuit TV can show that the bad guys posed a serious public threat that necessitated permanent neutralization. There was no public outcry when cops gunned down armed men who robbed a luxury watch store in Makati.

Guns, however, can kill both bad guys and innocents. For this reason, rules of engagement were drawn up a long time ago, which lawmen must strictly observe. In crowded urban centers, preserving innocent lives is paramount, even if it results in the escape of criminals.

Several cops are still facing charges for the fatal shooting of a father and his seven-year-old daughter who were hit as they drove past the scene of a gun battle between cops and suspected members of a robbery gang in Parañaque. All the robbery suspects were killed.

Among the cops spared from the charges in that case was Hansel Marantan, who later moved to Laguna. Marantan, now a police superintendent, is one of over 20 cops under investigation for the alleged shootout in Quezon province last Jan. 6 that left 13 people dead. Police and military sources have described one of the fatalities as a top jueteng lord and his companions as his partners or security escorts.

The police and military officers manning the supposed checkpoint, including Marantan, are now hard pressed to explain why they subjected the convoy to such blistering fire that no one could have possibly survived, with one vehicle bearing 186 bullet holes. The team at the checkpoint insisted that the men in the convoy opened fire first.

In a democracy, punishment is also supposed to be commensurate to the crime, and even bad guys have a right to due process. Do jueteng lords and their friends or bodyguards deserve death? Only the courts can decide, and even then capital punishment has already been abolished in this country. Were all 13 fatalities involved in jueteng? One was known as an environmental advocate.

Even if an ongoing probe leads to the conclusion that the incident was a legitimate law enforcement operation, it should give security forces lessons on the limits of violent shortcuts to law enforcement.