DUTERTE, THE PUNISHER . Touted as the “Punisher” and “Dirty Harry” Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, in this 2009 file photo, inspects high-caliber weapons before donating them to the National Bureau of Investigation, which he said will enhance his peace and order drive in the city. DENNIS JAY SANTOS/INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Shut your “lousy mouth.”
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had that to say on Monday to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who criticized her on radio on Sunday for moving too slow on David Tan, the alleged point man for rice smuggling through the Bureau of Customs.
The tough-talking Duterte, whom Time magazine once called “The Punisher” for his unconventional methods of dealing with criminality in Davao, said De Lima and the National Bureau of Investigation could have easily built a case against David Tan with the testimony of businessmen who said they knew Tan and that Tan and Davidson Bangayan who showed up at NBI headquarters last week were the same.
Duterte said De Lima kept talking about David Tan and the investigation of rice smuggling only for publicity.
“Stop talking and start working,” Duterte said, referring to De Lima.
Answering Duterte through reporters on Monday, De Lima said it was the Davao mayor who should “shut up.”
“Everybody is aware he’s got a lousy mouth,” De Lima said, referring to Duterte’s frequently shooting his mouth off and getting himself in trouble for it.
May be in trouble
Duterte may be in trouble again, with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) warning him against making public statements that “send wrong signals” and “invite vigilantism.”
CHR chair Loretta Ann Rosales on Monday said she had ordered an investigation of Duterte’s threat at a news conference in Davao on Jan. 7 to kill rice smugglers if they turned up in his city.
Duterte was speaking about David Tan, who, according to Federation of Philippine Industries, is from Davao City.
“I want the smuggling of rice in my city stopped. If you do not stop, I will kill you,” Duterte said at the press conference.
Rosales said she had ordered investigators to file charges in the Office of the Ombudsman against Duterte should they find that the mayor had broken the law.
Duterte’s dig on De Lima followed the NBI’s decision last week to release Bangayan after the “scrap metal trader” appeared at the agency to deny that he was David Tan.
“What I can say is, do not worry, Mayor Duterte, we are working, and we do not need a reminder from you for us to do our job because we are always working,” De Lima told reporters.
De Lima said she was puzzled at Duterte’s statement that the NBI failed to link Bangayan to David Tan.
“We are the ones who have been saying that our findings show that [Bangayan] is David Tan,” she said.
De Lima also warned Duterte that his “shoot-to-kill” order against rice smugglers in Davao City was “illegal.”
She said, however, that at first she did not know whether to take Duterte’s statement about a shoot-to-kill order against rice smugglers seriously.
But the statement was “vintage Mayor Duterte,” she said.
When she was the CHR chief, she said, she had warned Duterte against threatening criminals.
She said the authorities could enforce the law without issuing threats.
“That’s an illegal order. Don’t you know that?” she said, adding that the shoot-to-kill order “has no place under our current Constitution and under our current system of law.”
She said Duterte could be angry with her because when she was the CHR chief she actually took him to task for the death squads that rid Davao of criminals during his first term as mayor of the city.
Duterte was never proven to have links to the death squads, but he might have given the CHR’s Rosales the smoking gun by writing to her on July 17 last year to confirm that he had issued a shoot-to-kill order for criminals entering his city.
Rosales said the letter was signed for Duterte by the law firm Medialdea Ata Bello Guevarra and Suarez.
She said the letter came after a shootout between policemen and suspected kidnappers in Davao.
The use of lethal force by the police in that encounter is under a separate investigation, Rosales said.
No way to lead
Rosales said the new investigation would determine if Duterte’s Jan. 7 statements to reporters actually influenced or affected the professional behavior of the Davao police to the extent that their use of lethal force would violate human rights laws, including the rights guidelines of the Philippine National Police.
“Simply put, ordering law enforcement officers to ‘shoot to kill’ suspects, or [telling] smugglers to leave your area out of their operations or ‘I will kill you’ is no way for a local chief executive to lead,” Rosales said.
She made it clear that she would not take Duterte’s statements sitting down, as Duterte was a local chief executive who had supervision and control over the local police force.
“It is our duty to remind you that in today’s police paradigm, which considers the protection of human lives [a] primary operational objective, the death of a person—whether that person is a criminal, suspect, victim, hostage or innocent bystander—[during] police investigation is generally considered an operational failure,” Rosales said.
“It is a constitutional duty no one can ever cajole us into neglecting or desisting from doing,” she added.
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