By Mortz C. Ortigoza
“Pin-head o mahina rin ang utak nitong
senator na ito,” this what I quipped after I read the Face Book’s post on
the proposed death penalty bill of Senator Risa Hontiveros published by
Politics.com.ph.
Hontiveros
assailed the proposed death penalty passed by the House of Representatives that
she and her Liberal Party’s colleague wanted to torpedo after it reached at the
Senate.
TOP BRASS. From left Philippine National Police's Director General Ronald dela Rosa and Senator Panfilo Lacson. Photo Credit: Meme Buster |
“Death penalty is a cruel, inhumane and degrading
punishment, which has a disproportionate impact on the poor and little
guarantee that innocent people, would not be sentenced to death,” Hontiveros
wrote and was quoted by the Liberal Party’s friendly website.
In that
article, Politics.com.ph posted a poster of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal and
the three activist priests Fathers Mariano Gomez, José Burgos,
and Jacinto Zamora, called as Gomburza for brevity by Filipinos, who were
victims of death penalty by quoting Hontiveros’ comment “simply for standing up for equal rights, freedom and democracy.”
The
website titled its paraphrase of Hontiveros Face Book’s post as: “Paano kung inosente? Risa Hontiveros
opposes ‘cruel’ death penalty”.
My
reaction: How could those convicted felons killed by
a firing squad, lethal injection, electric chair, guillotine, or by the noose
that needs only somebody to kick the stool
where the convicted criminal
stands, according to another “intellectual giant” Senator Manny Pacquiao,
so this forsaken, soft, and criminal
friendly country could save for electricity when the poor convict would be
given due process and free lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office or PAO and
after his conviction by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) his case would have an
automatic review by the Supreme Court?
Death
Penalty is justifiable than the government’s gauntlet hand policy on “shooting
it out with the suspected hard core criminals” at a drop of a hat or
arbitrarily extra judicially killing them.
We should
get rid of this kind of death as it already reached the 6,000 mark after
President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office middle of last year.
Let’s
legalized execution by creating more RTCs so death would have due process.
How Jose
Rizal and GomBurZa became victims because they stood “simply for standing up
for equal rights, freedom and democracy” as espoused by Hontiveros, could not
get my comprehension.
What kind
of logic is that Politics.com.ph and Senator Hontiveros?
Dangerous
drug lords whose products turned a human being into a monster like being a robber,
kidnapper, or rapist who mercilessly killed their victim did not stand for
equal rights, freedom, and democracy.
These
sonnafabich are dregs of society, they are termites that will bring
these country to the abyss and the morass.
These
malefactors would destroy the pillars of what are equal rights, freedom, and
democracy stand for.
Their
elimination from our society is not only deterrence to their successors but
only make our democratic pillars stronger.
Besides,
Rizal and the three priests did not experience the real due process because
they were executed by a Kangaroo Court under the authoritarian regime of the
Spanish colonizer.
Pin head!
***
Senator Ping Lacson, a former chief of the
national police, schooled incumbent chief of the Philippine National Police’s
Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa when he told the latter at the Senate's Committee on Dangerous Drugs hearing Thursday the following:
“Don’t wait for your men to be sued. You sued
them administratively so they could be suspended”.
He said
that the chief PNP should be pro-active to interfere on his policemen who were
caught by security cameras “planting ” illegal drugs shabu to table drawers of
foreigners like those South Koreans and Chinese and cops who were panned by close circuit
cameras stealing valuables of foreigners where some they physically hurt during
their raid.
“Respect and trust among your men are earned, they cannot be demanded,”
the ramrod former four - star general, who even forced policemen to reduce
their beer belly during his watch, cited.
The lecture
ensued during the hearing of the death of the South Korean executive of Hanjin,
world’s biggest shipbuilder that give jobs to Filipinos, who was murdered near
the office of General Bato by police officials who also shamelessly fleeced the
wife of Jee Ick Joo with five million pesos ransom even
after they murdered him.
The
incumbent Chief PNP looked incompetent on the call of Lacson who was feared but
respected during his unforgettable stint as top honcho of the national
security.
Bato
should remember the quotes of political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli when he
wrote them on his book The Prince: “It is better to be feared than loved, if
you cannot be both”, “If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so
severe that his vengeance need not be feared” and “The first method for
estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him”.
The last
one was very applicable to the exhortation last Thursday of Lacson to dela
Rosa.
Son of a gun,
those quotes that are being used nowadays as dogma by effective leaders were
written by Machiavelli in the 16th Century in Florence, Italy.
Critics
of Bato criticized him not for his heavy handedness leadership but as singer,
clown, and drama artist on concerts, boxing of Manny Pacquiao in the U.S, and
Senate hearing and national TV interviews where he in some occasions wept
unabashedly just like what he had with the effeminate balding host Boy Abunda.
(You can read my selected columns at
http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can
send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
Naalis ng may-ari ang komentong ito.
TumugonBurahinNaalis ng may-ari ang komentong ito.
TumugonBurahinFranz Seagle Its look like bato is too weak to be called chief pnp. Panahon na to find someone who's somewhat strong & with fangs to squeeze roque cops
TumugonBurahinLike · Reply · 1 · 4 hrs
Marlon Dacio
Marlon Dacio The debate on death penalty, over crowding jail, several years of court trial, police scalawags, etc. is just a reflection that there is serious problem on our justice system, we have to overhaul our justice system and for sure it will take decade or generation to totally fix it, if the current administration is serious to fix this problem, better start immediately, just my opinion