Cycle of violence recalls dark Duterte legacy

This Week in Media (February 27 to March 4, 2023)

TWO KILLINGS made breaking news this week: one was an attack on a provincial governor and the other a death of a student due to hazing. The two cases were among the high profile cases of violence in the first quarter of 2023. Media have treated the attacks as separate incidents, giving the cases varying degrees of prominence in their reporting. 

Media’s approach tends to soften the impact of the numbers. In the month of February, two of four ambushes on local government officials resulted in deaths. With the report on the hazing case, the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) revealed another “frat” death that occurred in December last year. Added to this number is the average of five killed in drug operations per week in the first two months of 2023 based on data provided by Dahas last March 3. Dahas, a project of the Third World Studies Center of the University of the Philippines, has kept a running count of drug war casualties since Duterte launched his “war on drugs.”

Wanton violence has long been endemic in the Philippines. Rooted in the gun-culture of the country, the proliferation of weapons has enabled attacks on politicians, businessmen, journalists, activists, lawyers and judges who get in the way of powerful individuals, including those in public office. Political warlords and drug lords keep private armies. Most masterminds get away with their crimes while only hired assassins or fall guys face jail time, reflecting how impunity reigns for those with the means. 

Former President Rodrigo Duterte employed violent means in ridding Davao City of criminality. The so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) was known to execute individuals suspected of drug dealing or petty crimes.

He unleashed police forces to eliminate drugs early in his presidency and announced to the press that he had a “narco-list” of officials and police involved in drugs. Some of the individuals named were killed, among the 26,000 victims of drug-related killings (extrajudicial killings and during police operations) acknowledged at some point in a government document. Officially, as of March 2022, government listed 6,220 who were killed during police operations.

Duterte’s term exemplified violence as a strategic factor in government policy. 

Local officials killed so far under Marcos term

From February 17 to 26, unidentified assailants carried out armed attacks on several local government officials: on Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr.; Aparri Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda; Maguindanao del Sur Mayor Ohto Caumbo Montawal; and Lipa, Batangas Barangay Captain Vivencio Palo. Alameda and Palo both died.

PGen. Rodolfo Azurin, Jr. on February 24 ordered Police Regional Offices to conduct threat assessments on government officials in their jurisdictions. But he also told the media on February 27 that the killings were “isolated cases,” as the police still have to establish the motives. 

On Saturday, March 4, Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo was shot dead just outside his family’s residential compound. 

PCol. Red Maranan of the PNP Public Information Office told 24 Oras the cases were isolated.

The cases may be isolated, the perpetrators and killers different, and their motives unrelated. Those wishing to rid themselves of anyone’s presence, to silence critical voices, or to eliminate competitors in their turf may be acting on their own. The absence of links and connections does not take away the pattern of violence as a means of achieving one’s purposes, highlighting the ease with which killing is done.

Hazing in schools

Violence in schools has been mostly due to hazing and to “frat wars.” Brotherhood ironically takes a page from the violence of politics, as demonstrated in elections, in clan feuds, and in political rivalries. 

Hazing has been observed in fraternities and in military and police training academies. Following the death of Horacio Castillo III, a student of the University of Santo Tomas, during a fraternity’s initiation rites, lawmakers amended the Anti-Hazing Law in 2018 to ban the practice and impose heavier sentences on those who violate it. 

John Matthew Salilig, an Adamson University student, died due to injuries sustained in fraternity initiation rites. He made headlines this week after his body was found buried in a vacant lot behind a subdivision in Imus, Cavite on February 28. 

Salilig’s death received sustained coverage. The media tracked the memorials held fo him, as well as police efforts to track down suspects and file cases against them. His case also prompted the PAO to share with the public that it is handling the case of Ronnel Baguio, another hazing victim from Cebu who died in December 2022 supposedly at the hands of the same fraternity involved in Salilig’s death. 

In light of the recent hazing incidents, Senators Risa Hontiveros, Koko Pimentel, Nancy Binay and Joel Villanueva were among those who backed calls to drop the proposed mandatory Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC). But Senators Bato dela Rosa, Jinggoy Estrada and Win Gatchalian insisted on the sufficiency of safeguards in the bill. 

Dela Rosa complained that the call to scrap mandatory ROTC was a “desperate move from anti-ROTC leftist groups” and that Salilig died due to hazing and not ROTC. But Philstar.com correctly noted that Dela Rosa failed to acknowledge reported cases of hazing within the program, citing data from ABS-CBN’s investigative and research group that showed “15 of 58 hazing victims since 1954 came from military or maritime training institutions.”

Dela Rosa’s stance was not surprising. In 2018, he had attributed his character to “academy beatings” during his days in the Philippine Military Academy.

Drugs and the ICC

Appointed by President Duterte as Philippine National Police Chief, Dela Rosa is  the architect of the “war on drugs.” The killings in it are now the subject of investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as possible “crimes against humanity.” Along with Duterte, Dela Rosa was named by the ICC in 2021 as one of the proponents of a policy to perpetrate extrajudicial killings. 

President Marcos, Jr., who chose Duterte’s daughter as his running mate in the last election, has refused to recognize ICC’s jurisdiction. He has claimed that his campaign against drugs would shift from the punitive approach to therapy and social measures, but the violence has not let up: 45 were killed from January 1 to February 28. Media attention on the drug war under Marcos, however, has significantly waned. 

At this point, it will take a radical shift for him to depart from the ways of his predecessor. So far, there are no signs that he will reject the supposed dividends gained from Duterte’s despotism. The Philippine press has been tamed, unable to investigate and expose leads on scandals past and present. People continue to accept the lies peddled on social media. Many remain afraid as they should be, as violence can strike anyone for whatever reason, sometimes with a vengeance.

Duterte’s legacy is a bloody one, and people must become aware of its continuing prevalence during the present administration.