Questions for the man called ‘Bato’

“Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.” 

--Henri Nouwen

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I saw on social media that retired Philippine National Police (PNP) director general Ronald Marapon “Bato” dela Rosa visited Iloilo City before the All Saints’ Day, and was interviewed by my media colleagues there.
I have long wanted to interview retired general Bato even when he was still the PNP chief.
Now that he has retired and is running for senator, I am more emboldened to interview him as a candidate Mr. Bato.
I hope we can meet soon--in the US, where he was once invited by his kumpare, Senator Manny Pacquiao, to watch the boxer’s fight in Las Vegas, or in the Philippines, where he is now busy “campaigning” for his senatorial bid--before, during, or after the May 2019 elections.
Since the possibility of this meeting, nay interview, remains hanging by a thread for the time being, I would like to pose here some of the possible questions I might throw at the bubbly 56-year-old senatorial candidate from Davao del Sur in the event I’ll be lucky to bump him anytime.

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Here’s some of my questions for retired General Bato:
--When you assumed as PNP director general on July 1, 2016, you reechoed the promise made by President Duterte, your No. 1 endorser, that you would arrest or neutralize all the drug lords in the Philippines in the first six months.
Records show that you failed to deliver that promise. Can you comment on this, sir?
--In tears, you vowed to resign if you can’t fulfill your promise to the Filipino people. You did tender your resignation belatedly, but President Duterte rejected it. He even extended your term as the PNP big boss.
What did you do in the remaining months that your term was extended to redeem yourself after you failed to bag the biggest crooks or the “barracudas” in illegal drug trade, who remain at large as of this writing, in the Philippines?
--After you retired as PNP director general on April 19, 2018, your patron President Duterte “gifted” you with a position as director of the Bureau of Corrections from April 30, 2018 until October 12, 2018.
In the six months that you were the big boss of the country’s biggest jail, where some of the most prominent convicted criminals, including the top drug lords, are detained, what changes--if there are some--have you introduced to improve the jail and management system in the country’s premier corrections facility that houses hundreds of hardened criminals?
--You are pushing for the restoration of death penalty, you said in your media interviews. Is your stand on this subject matter influenced by what you discovered in the Bureau of Corrections during the six months of your directorship? Do you believe that the National Bilibid Prison is over crowded and incapable of accommodating more inmates, and the only solution to this “problem” is exterminate those who have been convicted of heinous crimes?

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We already have an idea of your answer to this next question, but I must still ask this, nevertheless, in a hope that you can shed light on this very controversial issue especially now that you are “on your own” and seeking the blessings of the Filipino electorate for a very important position in the country’s highest legislature.
--Did the police engage in summary executions or extra-judicial killings (EJK) when you were the PNP director general? If your answer is NO, how do you explain the scandalous killings of thousands of suspected drug addicts in the slum areas and the murders of suspected illegal drug traffickers not yet charged formally in court?
If your answer is YES (which we know you won’t admit), will you pin the blame on the Commander in Chief, President Duterte and claim, as a defense, that you were only an underling and receiving orders as a “good soldier”? Or you will own the “command responsibility” and be open and willing to be subjected to any lawful and fair investigation?
And, if elected in the senate, are you willing to cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which investigates the cases of thousands of alleged EJK victims in the Philippines involving mostly “tambays” or poor suspected drug addicts and “small time” drug pushers?
Hoping to see you soon, General Bato.

I hope I won’t ‘disappear’ like Jamal Khashoggi

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”
--HELEN PREJEAN, Dead Man Walking

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I hope I won’t “disappear” if I write critical stories against the Philippine Government even if I am in the United States.
Journalists around the world are probably expressing the same concern after brave Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared and believed to have been murdered when he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2, 2018.
The journalist’s mysterious disappearance has spawned an international diplomatic crisis and is currently the “talk of the town” in the global media.
Khashoggi has written extensively for the Washington Post about Saudi Arabia, criticizing its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women's rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving.
Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the billionaire Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Like Khashoggi, we also visit our Philippine Consulate from time to time to interview Consulate officials and cover art, cultural, musical, and political events even if in the stories we write, we critically call the attention of government officials concerned over some reported malpractices and suspected acts of graft and corruption.
Turkish officials have said they fear a Saudi hit team killed and dismembered Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the crown prince.
The kingdom has called such allegations "baseless," but has not offered any evidence Khashoggi ever left the consulate.

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I have written several critical articles against the extra-judicial killings (EJK) in the Philippines, but not against the person of Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who has been known to be sensitive to media criticism especially those who broadcast and write about the EJK involving suspected drug pushers and users mostly in the slum areas.
Based on the figure released by a joint report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), 85 cases of attacks against journalists have been recorded since Mr. Duterte assumed office in June 2016.
This includes the killing of 9 journalists, 16 libel cases, 14 cases of online harassment, 11 death threats, 6 slay attempts, 6 cases of harassment, 5 cases of intimidation, 4 cases of website attack, revoked registration or denied franchise renewal, verbal abuse, strafing, and police surveillance of journalists and media agencies.
Malous Mangahas, executive director of the PCIJ, said in a forum during the World Press Freedom Day in May early this year, the number “far exceeds those recorded under four presidents before him. Separately and together, these 85 cases have made the practice of journalism an even more dangerous endeavor under Duterte.”

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The nine media killings under Duterte's administration is higher compared to the numbers of slays during the first 22 months of other presidents: five during President Benigno “Noy-Noy”Aquino III's time, five under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, five cases under President Fidel Ramos and three cases under President Joseph Estrada.
Even if Mr. Duterte is known to be notoriously allergic to media criticism and does not mince words when issuing threats against reporters, we are confident he won’t go to the extent of violently muzzling journalists like me who want only to help the Philippine government and not to destroy the president’s reputation.
We reiterate that journalists are partners of Mr. Duterte and other officials in government in nation building, not enemies that agitate to topple the administration through subversive means.
We support the ongoing international efforts to investigate Khashoggi’s case and bring to court the perpetrators.
May his family recover his body dead or alive.

Ilonggo lawyer’s murder alarming

“If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.”
--Bayard Rustin

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- We’re curious, worried and alarmed.
Are lawyers who defend in court those accused in cases involving illegal drugs also being targeted for summary execution in the Philippines?
Does lawyering for the society’s “bad elements” constitute a sin punishable by death?
Does defending the rights of the accused in narcotics cases also make lawyers enemies of the state?
Our curiosity aroused early this year when a prominent lawyer in Cebu City, Jonah John Ungab, was gunned down while driving his car in broad daylight along S. Osmena Street in Cebu City on February 19, 2018.
Ungab was the lawyer of wanted suspected drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.
Also in Cebu City on July 2, 2018, another lawyer, Salvador Solima, known for handling high profile drug cases, was killed inside his house at Singson Compound in Barangay Guadalupe.

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On Thursday morning in Bacolod City, prominent lawyer Rafael Atutubo, 62, who handled drug-related cases, was gunned down by motorcycle-riding assailants while sitting outside his house on Galo Street, Barangay 20.
The manner the crime was executed was intriguing.
The same pattern and method.
The same purpose and reason?
Just like the recent spate of murders involving Catholic priests highly critical against the police’s operations and their alleged summarily killings of street-level drug suspects, it appears there is a trend in the killing of lawyers handling narcotics cases in the Philippines.
We hope and pray all these incidents weren’t state-sponsored and those involved in the attacks weren’t members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) like in numerous cases recently of foiled ambush attempts on drug personalities where some of the slain triggermen were organic PNP members.

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The escalation of violence involving the campaign against illegal drugs has gone too far.
Lawyers, priests, cops, mayors, village chiefs, and journalists have been waylaid violently like stray dogs all in the name of “all out war” against illegal drugs.
And only few people are angry and willing to denounce violence, which has become the trademark of the Philippines since President Rodrigo Roa Duterte launched an aggressive campaign against illegal drugs.
We’re not saying that the police have allowed themselves to be used as “berdugos” (executioners) or tools to eliminate suspected drug dealers and drug addicts and their defenders, but they should be our protectors, not our killers.
Atutubo’s grisly murder was too much to bear for the peace-loving Filipinos who are now starting to realize that the war against illegal drugs can’t and will never be won overnight through violence.
We demand justice for all victims of extra-judicial killings; we demand the immediate end of violence in the name of war against narcotics.

Secure Iloilo mayors Centena, Malones, Betita

“The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”
--Sun Tzu

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- We join our fellow “concerned” Ilonggos in the Philippines and abroad in the call for the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Iloilo Chapter to use all its resources to secure Mayors Alex Centena of Calinog, Mariano Malones of Maasin, and Siegfredo Betita of Carles.
The three are among the local chief executives in the Philippines linked by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in illegal drugs.
As among the country’s most outstanding mayors, they don’t deserve to die violently based on wrong information and accusation.
Even if they have repeatedly and emotionally denied their involvement in narcotics, their names have remained dangling in the controversial list.
It’s better to praise 40 thieves and pagans than to condemn and put to risk the life of an innocent person.

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Some of the mayors included in the bloody list are now dead; killed violently by unidentified assailants in separate attacks even before they could clear their names.
There has been no assurance from the Philippine National Police (PNP) or even the President himself that the killings of “narco politicians’” will end soon.
In fact, the President himself has offered rewards for law enforcers who can kill drug traffickers.
President Duterte goaded and “inspired” uniformed personnel sworn to protect the civilians to commit a criminal act against both the drug addicts and drug traffickers.
He even sided with police officials and ordinary cops implicated in extra-judicial killings (EJK) involving suspected drug traffickers--civilians or government officials and rogue cops.
We are not saying that the President and the PNP are behind the murderous binge, but the words and body languages of some PNP generals, especially President Duterte himself, suggest that they don’t condemn and discourage the bloody murders.
As feared by many human rights watchdogs, “they may have even abetted it.”

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There have been no solid pieces of evidence, of course, that would link President Duterte and the PNP, but the culture of impunity in the Philippines has been overwhelmingly associated with the administration’s “all out” campaign against illegal drugs.
Now that election season is fast approaching, some politicians and disgruntled syndicate leaders might take advantage of President Duterte’s controversial “narco list” and order the assassination of their opponents in the May 2019 elections who are on the list, to make it appear they were waylaid for their “involvement” in narcotics business.
Whether they are up for reelection, Mayors Centena, Malones, and Betita undoubtedly have been exposed to danger--including members of their family just like other mayors, governors and other elected public officials maligned by the feeble “narco list.”

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We don’t point an accusing finger to the President and make conclusions with absolute certainty that he might order the murder of the three Ilonggo mayors, but according to his bombastic speeches in the past, he “will definitely kill” former Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog whom he accused of being a “narco politician” and “the cousin” of murdered Western Visayas drug lord Boyet Odicta.
In linking the mayors and other local government chief executives in illegal drugs, an outraged President Duterte said he based it on “intelligence reports” which could also be false or “doctored.”