The people who rally behind

                  What controversy is really spewed about a shoot-to-kill order directed to police authorities against criminals when the latter are considered armed and dangerous? Mayor Rodrigo Duterte hugged the dailies anew for such purported order against members of kidnap- for-ransom syndicates who are still at large. What stemmed from those short bursts of gunfire right at the heart of the city which pinned down three suspects of kidnapping were highly reliable police intel. When these criminals set foot in Davao, they knew what they were up to. Indeed, it was a deathwish granted for the three since by their illegal acts, they expressly asked for it. With the seized high powered firearms at the crime scene it was nonetheless a res ipsa loquitor that all pointed to the criminals’ evil design. There could have been an unimaginable bloodbath.

                  For the onlookers, the whole police operation was a huge success. Now, one can ask either Malacañang Spokesperson Abigail Valte and Commission on Human Rights Commissioner Etta Rosales about what P-noy’s government had done to address these kidnapping issues. This is the time to note for it as President Aquino is bound deliver his State of the Nation address today. Media would dare to ask him, too. It can be noted Valte and Rosales sang a different tune. The shootout incident ended up as murders if not as acts of immorality according to the versions of Val-Ros (Valte and Rosales) with their versions and biases of the story. But their duet did not draw crowd as expected. Do people make a choice, to side with that popular order of Duterte, instead? People were not products of bad education on the streets. They knew necessary evils in government would shake up certain sectors only to preserve and protect the interests of the many.

                  Val-Ros only saw the whole of the donut and not the donut itself. True, it is their duty to advance the interests of innocent civilians against all forms of human rights violations. But did they rejoice when the abducted leave the claws from her captors unscathed? What more could have pleased them? Instead of giving commendations, theirs were remorseful words against another public official who is ready to bring hell to all criminals in this city. Look, who are they cuddling here? But even for the sake of stupid argument that it is their duty to state what is right under the circumstances, it is still uncalled for. What they only brought was death to commonsense. Why don’t they train their instincts instead to the Cadavero case? How about the Atimonan massacre? In the next few days, we will know what “summary executions” if Val-Ros write their findings of these cases in their human rights book. The gang leader Ricky Cadavero and cohort Wilfredo Panagalinga were killed after they sustained gunshot wounds under the custody of the police. Nothing is new in the script of the police.

                  Is Malacañang blind about pay-offs made by Fil-Chinese victims of kidnapping? Maybe, for one thing: there is always blockout in media during the huge pay-day or that, at least, access to information can be denied for its being a highly-sensitive case. How many men in uniform could have acted in connivance with the criminals? In the recent spate of kidnapping incidents, when the victim is released, the families would not dare to break silence for fear of their lives. They face the media and say, no money was given to the kidnappers in exhange of life. They tend to live normal lives again. But the stigma on the victim and the family during the dark days under the hands of merciless kidnappers would remain. The people who rallied behind Mayor Duterte’s pronouncement are those who longed for peace in their communities. When the firepower settled down, killing criminals on the spot, I received a text message from a senior student at Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan College of Law which states: “We need a leader like Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who can make this country the most unsafe place for criminals. Human rights must be construed in harmony with peace, security and justice”. He added, Mindanaoan for President in 2016.