The declaration of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez earlier in the week that there should be a “shoot-to-kill” order against the culprits in the barbaric and cold blooded massacre of 10 bank employees and customers at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in Cabuyao, Laguna is very disturbing.
It is unclear how Gonzalez would justify such an action, but it certainly frightens me to contemplate policemen just shooting at plain sight any person or persons who might be suspected of involvement in the heinous crime.
Was the outrage of Gonzalez so great that he forgot he is justice secretary of a country that has abolished the death penalty?
A “shoot-to-kill” order is worse than the death penalty, because the suspects’ lives can be terminated without due process. The constitutional presumption of innocence unless proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt is being thrown out of the window. And what if the wrong person is killed?
This is a very dangerous statement for Gonzalez to make. He owes the Filipino people an apology for such outburst.
What Gonzalez ought to do is whip the National Bureau of Investigation into a professional crime-busting organization that can crack the worst crimes and bring the culprits before the bar of justice.
He can also straighten out the national prosecution service which is directly under him to make it a potent force to pin down criminals. A big reason why our law enforcement efforts are being blunted is the poor performance of our prosecutors. Many supposedly air-tight cases are dismissed in court due to incompetence, negligence or plain laziness.
Crimes like the Cabuyao RCBC massacre happen because government’s capability to combat the bad guys have become puny. The law doesn’t scare the criminals anymore.
This happened because we have a justice secretary who uses his position to harass and oppress perceived enemies of the administration. The real bad guys are free to roam around and perpetrate all kinds of crimes. Gonzalez is too busy doing other things than mend the fences in his own backyard and do what he is supposed to do — lead the justice system of the country against criminals.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you… three days ago, policemen shot and killed three men suspected of involvement in the Cabuyao RCBC bank massacre. But the families of two of the slain suspects said the fatalities were not criminals. In fact, one was killed in his own house as his wife and children were cowering in fear upstairs. The testimony of the widow gains credence when she said her husband would not risk the safety of his family by engaging the policemen in a gunfight if indeed he were a criminal. The dead man had a licensed firearm. From what I know, criminals don’t get their firearms licensed.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez must really be salivating with satisfaction now that four men are dead in what the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has ruled to be “rub-outs”, or summary execution, committed by the police in Batangas.
These men were clearly not criminals. Neither did they engage the police in a gunbattle as claimed. They were brutally murdered on the mere suspicion that they were involved in the gruesome RCBC Cabuyao massacre.
Apparently, the police who carried out the summary executions took their cue from Gonzalez, who publicly declared that there should be a “shoot-to-kill” order against the suspects.
A public statement like that can motivate law enforcers to become criminals themselves by killing innocent persons.
With a justice secretary like Gonzalez, none of us can sleep soundly at night with the assurance that we will be safe and secure in our homes.