Summary killings: Who’s complaining?

Former Mayor Rey Uy of Tagum City, Davao del Norte, has been accused of ordering the summary killings of crime suspects in the city from 2007 to 2013.

It’s unbelievable for the mild-mannered and soft-spoken Uy to order the elimination of “weeds,” which notorious criminals are, and  should be uprooted from society.

But if  Uy  was indeed responsible for the killings of bad elements in the city during his watch, so what?

Who’s complaining, anyway?

Certainly not the people of Tagum City, who slept well in their homes at night and walked the streets without fear of getting mugged.

Why listen to the complaint of Human Rights Watch, a US-based group, which has looked the other way when some American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq kill innocent civilians during a crossfire?

Why listen to the Human Rights Watch, which has its headquarters in New York City, when former Mayor Rudy Giuliani rid the city’s streets of criminals by means fair or foul, mostly foul?

Before Giulianni became the mayor of the biggest city in the US, a resident always ran the risk of getting mugged at Central Park during a stroll. Where was the Human Rights Watch while Giulianni was uprooting weeds in New York City?

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Why is Davao City practically crime-free?

The answer is obvious: Criminals are not safe in the city of Mayor Rody Duterte.

There was a time  when criminals ruled the streets of the city. Residents didn’t go out at night, afraid of being robbed or killed.

Women feared getting mashed or raped. Even schoolchildren were robbed  by street gangs. Illegal drugs were sold openly.

And then out of the chaos, a vigilante group brought order.

The  Davao Death Squad (DDS) eliminated the low life and weeds who didn’t stop their activities  despite being warned.

Policemen who were protecting criminals were treated like criminals themselves and eliminated.

The people are happy; so are the police whose job of maintaining the peace has become easier.

Business is booming in the city because of the peaceful environment.

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In the 1990s, there was a rash of bank robberies in Metro Manila.

Police arrested robbers who posted bail, then started robbing banks again.

Many of these criminals  were acquitted either because the judges were paid off or prosecutors, who were bribed, filed weak cases leading to acquittals.

A police official at the time was so enraged by the impunity of criminals he thought of organizing a squad to eliminate corrupt judges and prosecutors.

He changed his mind, but the citizens would have benefited if he hadn’t. A corrupt judiciary is responsible for the spread of criminality.

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While nobody was looking, former Palawan police director Elnora Bernardino was acquitted of a serious electoral offense for which she would have spent many years in jail.

Bernardino belongs to a very influential religious sect.