Price tag on criminal suspects

Is there a price tag for a human life?

If one were a drug lord or any other lowlife criminal scum as President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is fond of saying, apparently yes.

In his visit to Cebu last Wednesday afternoon, Duterte said he will give P5.5 million to police officers who can eliminate drug lords in the province because, as he said, he liked Cebu. Even if he has yet to sign a presidential order let alone be sworn into office, Duterte’s pronouncement means that the bounty system will be instituted as a law enforcement policy.

And as far as Cebu is concerned, the results have been quite significant. Human rights advocates may denounce it as inhumane but Duterte and other proponents of the bounty system like incoming Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña are mouthing paeans to the bounty system as an effective deterrent against criminality.

If anything, it adds fuel to the extrajudicial killings that have marked the early days of the first Aquino administration in the ‘80s. There were rumors going around of vigilantes lying low until they “get a budget” to hunt down criminal suspects and send them to an early date with their Maker.

And in Duterte’s speech to 300 Cebuano supporters, the president-elect had even made it appear that he was actually “pleading” with the drug lords to leave the country lest they be hunted down and run over like stray rabid dogs in an alley.

“I don’t want to use extraordinary means…I plead to all of you to stop (screwing) this country. If you do wala tayong problema (we have no problems),” the president-elect told cheering supporters. One notes a slight calibration in Mr. Duterte’s statement, as if to defuse any lingering anxieties people have over his ruthless tactics in dealing with suspected criminals.

And try as they might, rights advocates and local officials who may find it anathema to take the war against crime to Wild West extreme levels can hardly argue with the initial immediate results. In Cebu, people who were identified as the most wanted in the list of drug dealers, such as Pablito Loberanis of Mandaue City, came forward and surrendered—all out of fear to what may happen to them once Duterte sits down and the crackdown on criminal suspects begins in earnest.

But while the criminals may cower and make a beeline to the nearest jail, others like Pastor Crisostomo Maternal, are caught and killed in the crossfire. And try as they might, the police also cannot completely erase suspicions of a rubout on Banacon Island, Getafe town in Bohol province that claimed the life of John Jason Montes, whose parents claim was a victim of police brutality.

So far, Duterte’s actions and pronouncements have been met with strong public support. Those who still believe in due process, of strong law enforcement that ensures that the guilty is punished and jailed for their crimes rather than be executed vigilante style are being drowned out by those who believe that proactive, hard-line campaigns against crime is the way to go.

But we ask if there are any checks or safety nets in this war on crime or do we go through this as a country with blinders on, disregarding the consequences? This we must consider.