* This is my article in BusinessWorld on March 30, 2017.
While there is continuing (legal and political) debate
whether extrajudicial killings (EJK) are happening in the Duterte
administration or not, there is no debate that thousands of mysterious murders,
often drug-related, have occurred since President Duterte won the May 2016
elections.
So far, death toll of drug-related murders from mid-May
2016 to February 2017 is estimated at 7,000+. The Philippine National Police
(PNP) released its official data, indicating that from July 1, 2016 to Jan. 24,
2017, some 2,539 “killed during police operations.”
I have no sympathy with drug lords, drug pushers, and
hardened drug users/addicts who steal and commit other crimes just to sustain
their addiction and trade. But I also believe that all suspects should be given
due process. Armed agents of the state (PNP, NBI, PDEA, sometimes the AFP)
should go through the legal process of investigation-apprehension-prosecution
cycle and not commit shortcuts of outright murders based on flimsy reasons like
“nanlaban eh” (fought the officers) even inside police precincts or even inside
the prison cells.
There are many drug-related murders that are outside the
“killed during police operations” and these were committed by armed vigilantes.
Some of these “vigilantes” were found to be policemen themselves like the two
officers caught in Mindoro last October 2016 after they murdered a woman.
To better address the drugs problem and related corruption
and murders, we can learn from our neighbors in Asia how they enforce the rule
of law, the criminal justice system in particular.
The World Justice Project (WJP) produces an annual study,
the “Rule of Law Index” (ROLI) and score countries based on their performance
on eight factors and 44 sub-factors. The eight factors are: (1) Constraints on
Government Powers, (2) Absence of Corruption, (3) Open Government, (4)
Fundamental Rights, (5) Order and Security, (6) Effective Regulatory
enforcement, (7) Civil Justice, and (8) Criminal Justice.
The WJP’s Index team has developed a set of
questionnaires based on the Index’s conceptual framework, then it engaged 2,700
expert surveys in 113 countries and jurisdictions and involved more than
110,000 households as respondents to the experts’ questionnaires.
Below is a summary table from ROLI 2016 in Asia. The
Philippines’ scores in ROLI 2014 and 2015 reports are also included. The
following acronyms stand for: SG Singapore, SK South Korea, JP Japan, HK Hong Kong,
MY Malaysia, ID Indonesia, TH Thailand, PH Philippines, CN China, and CM
Cambodia (see table).
The numbers point to the following:
One, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong are
developed economically mainly because they have high observance and respect for
the rule of law as reflected in their high ROLI scores, also high scores in
component #8, the criminal justice system. In contrast, communist China and
Cambodia have low respect for rule of law and have low scores.
Two, ASEAN 5 -- Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand
and Philippines -- have middle scores in overall ROLI, which is somehow good
news. But in component #8, Indonesia and Philippines have low scores.
Three, the Philippines has shown consistent low scores in
component #8 for the past three years. In particular, very low scores in the
four highlighted items -- CS Adjudication and Correctional system are not
effective, the Justice system is highly discriminatory and due process is not
properly observed.
Some of our developed neighbors like Singapore have death
penalty against drug-related crimes, true. The difference is that the accused
are given due process and the chance to prove their innocence and not summarily
executed just based on suspicions.
What deters criminal behavior is stricter observance of
the rule of law, the near-certainty of apprehension and imprisonment of
violators, even if they may be the law enforcers themselves. This is the kind
of criminal justice system that we need. Not state-sponsored or state-inspired
or state-tolerated murders.
Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the head of Minimal
Government Thinkers and a Fellow of SEANET; both institutes are members of EFN
Asia.
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See also:
BWorld 119, Seven myths in the mining debate, April 07, 2017
BWorld 120, Five myths of solar-wind energy, April 08, 2017
BWorld 121, The PH tax reform bill and tax policies in East Asia, April 10, 2017
BWorld 122, Six more myths in the mining debate, April 13, 2017
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