Make Tondo station chief stay in secret cell

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) should be commended for the discovery of a secret cell at the Manila Police District’s Station No. 1 in Tondo, where 12 drug suspects were cramped like pigs in a small pen.

Even Director Oscar Albayalde, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), could not stand for a few minutes the heat and stink of the place when he inspected it yesterday.

The cell, which is separate from the station’s regular jail, didn’t have windows.

All 12 detainees cooped up in that pig pen of a jail had not been charged with any crime although they were arrested for drug use or pushing.

Supt. Roberto Domingo, who has been relieved as station commander as of yesterday, should have been made to stay inside that cell to make him realize the suffering he inflicted on his erstwhile “subjects.”

That would have been just punishment for him.

It’s more humane to execute incorrigible criminals or drug addicts rather than torture them.

What the current dispensation is doing—executing the dregs of society like incurable drug addicts who prey on the innocent to support their vice—is actually favoring those scum.

In death, one’s physical suffering ceases.

Executing doomed convicts after a thorough review of their cases by the Supreme Court would unclog our prisons.

The government would save on prisoners’ food and prison upkeep as there would be less inmates.

The money saved from maintaining our prisons could then be spent on treating the sick in government hospitals.

The courts would be careful in sending people to the gallows and the Supreme Court might just be compelled to act promptly on capital offenses under review.

The high court has a penchant for blaming the lower courts for clogged dockets while conveniently forgetting that it, too, has its share of undecided cases.

The bottom line: The Senate should reconsider its decision to “kill” the death penalty bill.

Many policemen are using the government’s war on drugs to get back at their personal enemies or extort money from drug suspects.

If they have any brains at all, the police higher-ups should know this.

Cops who take advantage of the current spate of killings should also be included in the hit list.