J.K. Rowling, through the character Prof. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore in her book “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” said, “we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”
The men and women of the Philippine National Police should heed the wisdom of this message, lest they persist in snubbing probes by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
Such resistance to inquiries on the possible role of police in human rights violations is a bombastic public confirmation that there is division in the government where justice is concerned.
People are suffering the repercussions of this deadlock.
In Central Visayas, CHR’s pursuit of justice for at least 27 citizens who lost their lives in drug-related cases is being hampered by the police’s obeisance to President Rodrigo Duterte.
He had ordered that all CHR requests for police information and appearances should be cleared by his office.
Obviously, the President, who scores points among his fanatics whenever he persecutes human rights advocates has yet to permit the police to help.
The situation would be comical were it not sad.
Policemen want to know as much as human rights investigators do who was responsible for the deaths of many, like four-year-old Bladen Skyler Abatayo, but the former are not sharing what they know with the commission.
The house of justice is divided, the nation’s pursuit of security severely weakened by the mindset which counts the cause of human rights as a weak spot in crimefighting.
An associated idea poisons law enforcement: That which considers a body count proof of a working police force, never mind if the pile of corpses has been mounting due to the ignoring of due process and the razing of communities, innocent lives included.
If the President and the police have not been acting like school thugs addicted to the adrenaline high that accompanies rulebreaking, they have nothing to conceal from the CHR, no reason to delay handing over documents and resource persons who can help the commission accomplish its mandate.
If they have a heart for the people they are supposed to serve and protect, they would welcome the CHR as an ally that would help them get rid of and penalize so-called cops who have been doing the opposite of what is expected of them.
The President and the police are digging their own grave by being uncooperative.
At the very least, they may be party to obstruction of justice.
At worst, they may be colluding in crimes against humanity.
Attention: International Criminal Court.
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