Slaughter of Innocents

STOPPING THE COUNT: As we have already mentioned in our previous posts, vigilante killings in Cebu and others places in the Visayas, have remained unabated. A local human rights group, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) in Visayas, at first consistently tallies the number of murders of this nature when it began sometime in December 2004; however, when the murder continues unabated after reaching 120 deaths in September 2006, they stopped counting.

The experience TFDP had been through is shared by other non-governmental organizations is Davao City. There, at the early stage of the vigilante killings in Davao City, an alliance of group campaigning against the vigilante killings, named Coalition against Summary Execution (CASE), was also formed.

But years later though, apart from the coalition suffering difficulties for lack of resources; they themselves had become targets of hate speeches by local officials, the people giving acquiescence to this killings and had to endure risk of threats as they are continuing their campaign. Nowadays, a source said the coalition had simply virtually stopped or non-functioning at all as they ought to be doing.

One of the member group of the coalition are themselves reluctant into getting involved any further to avoid being subjected to any attacks—not only their organization but likewise their staffs. Some organization is themselves too frightened to release openly their report published in 2004 on killings in Davao City. Since they have published the said report, more and more of persons, particularly boys, receiving direct services from them had also become target of this murder.

Thus, nowadays in these two cities, Cebu and Davao, there is virtually no one who consistently documents individual cases of murders on pretext of vigilante killings. Even though this nature of deaths is reported in local tabloids daily(photo 1 and 2) and that journalist could openly write them in paper; however, once any person or groups takes the cause of campaigning for this killings for redress to victims, are matters not only extremely dangerous but has become difficult to do.

The extent of lawlessness, lack of trust and faith by families of the victims that they would be able to obtain remedies at all and the local officials’ open and deliberate indoctrination of the public of who deserves to die has since deprived these victims and their relatives any equal protection to law.

In these cities, any notion of state’s obligations into protecting its citizens from being arbitrarily deprived of their lives seems does not exist. What is extremely shocking is the environment has reached to an extent wherein human lives no longer matters; and the victims and their relatives are no longer getting any attention.