Searching for Pablo

Batman

December 26, 2007

I love Davao City.

In 2001 and 2005, it was adjudged by the Asian Institute of Management as the most competitive metro city in the Philippines, edging out Metro Manila and Cebu. The city is also a perennial runner up to the 40 Best Cities in Asia and that makes it, according to Asiaweek which conducted the survey, the Most Livable City in the Philippines.

As far as “livability” goes, it ranked 18th followed by Cebu at 19th while Manila was at far 25th place.

It also earned the distinction of having the Best Police Office in the Country for six years from 1999-2005. With a crime rate of 0.8 cases per 10,000 per month, it’s one of the most peaceful cities in Asia. At least, that’s what the city government’s website (www.davaocity.gov.ph) says.

Unless my math is wrong, that’s roughly 160 cases per month. In a city of two million people, that’s not half bad when taken independently. Crime solution efficiency, however, dipped five points last year from 89 percent in 2005. The decline in crime solution efficiency for index crimes was mainly due to the increased of the unsolved crimes against persons, said the National Economic Development Authority 2006 Region-XI Economic Performance.

The authorities in these parts are just counting the rising body count killed nearly daily in the manner that would have earned the approval of Don Corleone: quick and easy. Maybe the Davao City Police Office hires statisticians as law enforcers? I've read of several killings attributed to the men on motorcycles, which the media ominously dubbed the Davao Death Squad, yet i haven't heard of a single arrest. That should bring down the crime solution efficiency several notches. 

What about witnesses?

No problem. In this city, nobody’s breaking the code of Omerta. Not if you like death to come knocking on your door while you sleep at night. Death, in this instance, rides a 94-kilogram machine with a 4-stroke engine and a max speed of 125 KPH while his scythe spews .45 caliber bullets.

As far as superheroes go, Batman was not invincible. He was human who pushed his limits to near breaking point to keep Gotham City safe from super villains and ordinary criminals. His motivation was revenge. You don’t hear batman talk about rainbows or pretty ponies or pontificate about abstracts like love, patriotism, and justice whenever he collars a criminal. They get owned and their asses thrown in jail, period.

Last December 24, while getting ready for breakfast with two broadcaster-colleagues, 51-year-old Ferdie “Batman” Lintuan was gunned down in broad daylight by death on a motorcycle. The term Batman is a corruption of the words “Batang Mandaya,” after the tribe where he supposedly belongs.

Belonged. I sometimes forget he’s dead now — relegated to the past. Rendered from passive verb “is” to “was” by bullets that stayed true to their nature. Just like that.  Right now, Somebody should tell his four children (who are orphans now after their mother succumbed to cancer two years ago) that their father did not die in vain. it's hard to feed them with virtues when they see their father's body lying in that casket. For these children, Christmas will no longer be the same again.

He might not have worn the dark cape, but in his radio program, Lintuan was also relentless in his attempt to check corruption and abuses in government. 

I remember four years ago, another broadcaster, the colorful Jun Pala, was killed in the city. As expected, nothing came out of the task force that was formed to investigate and run after the killers.

Right after Ferdie was killed, Task Force Batman was created. Is it farfetched to declare that nothing will come out of this investigation? Maybe or maybe not. But excuse me if I won’t hold my breath while waiting.

Unfair or not, Ferdie was associated with congressman Prospero Nograles, a known rival of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Unfair or not, his commentaries were dismissed as nothing more than black propaganda to dirty the administration of Duterte. Before he was killed, Ferdie was harping what he claimed was an overpriced People’s Park – the pet project of Duterte — pointing particularly to the relocated trees.

I will not venture to guess Ferdie’s motivations and alliances. Nobody’s perfect, certainly not me.

But in a city vaunted for its discipline and P300-million peace and order fund, people shouldn’t have to die for expressing their opinions. And if they do, somebody should go to prison for it. As the caped crusader in his later years realized, revenge is not the antidote to crime.

Justice is.

 

Posted by searchingforpablo at 1:18 pm | permalink

Previous Comments

hi, ko! i really enjoyed browsing your blog. so deep man diay ang thoughts sa akong friend.

honestly, as i was reading your articles, i got even more impressed with your talent. the thoughts you imparted are really of great sense.

see you around, my friend!

Posted by jenny grace molbog-mendoza at February 13, 2008, 10:29 am

I read your comment dated December 26, 2007 on the Sunstar news and I was impressed by your eloquence. I don’t know if your opinion on vigilantes remains the same . I feel the need to share my views on the same subject being a resident of the place in question.

My sister owned a store in the corner of Tulip Drive and Quimpo blvd in Ecoland, Davao City. Her family lived there as well. In the space of a year, they got robbed 5 times. Once, the robbers even pried open a triple locked back door to invade the house, threaten the family at the end of gun barrels to give up their money and valuables, endangering not only lives and property but the virtue of my young niece as well. The family stayed in the same place in spite of these break ins because there was nowhere in Davao City that you can feel safe enough to transfer your business to. The last straw happened when the robbers took the new family pick up and almost kidnapped her husband to boot. Her husband clung to the gate and held on for dear life. As a result, the robbers beat him with their gun butts to within an inch of his life before he was left to die in the gutter. That was when my sister’s family gave up their business and transferred to an old house that they felt looked dilapidated enough to seem too poor to be robbed. Thankfully, that was the year that Rodrigo Duterte run for mayor again. You would not believe how he won the race hands down. That was how Davao City welcomed the thought of the fearless mayor. The vigilantes were back. The hold uppers fled. The drug related crimes went down. The rugby boys who loiter around street corners were gone. Summary killings are for criminals… the ones who paid their way out of the judicial systems, the ones who went in and out of jail regularly, the ones who would kill for money and the ones who would peddle drugs especially to kids on top of the list. I don’t know the story of Batman, but are you sure it was the DDS who axed him? Maybe not.

I could still remember the times when I was never allowed out of our house beyond 7:00 o clock because the street became hunting grounds for the criminal elements. Today, the taxis could ply their route in the wee hours of the morning without fear of being held up. Night life became popular as the yuppie crowd became more confident that they will not be robbed on their nights out. Business is booming.

True the street maintenace is not something to be proud of. The infrastructure needs a little boost. But I’ll take that anytime knowing that my kids are safe when they come out of school to buy project materials in the malls. I’ll accept that as fair trade knowing that my husband will be safe on his way home from work. Maybe Vigilantism is a monster in a bottle. Maybe it has some casualties. But I’d love to hear a Davaoeno lambast the Davao Death Squad , face a kidnapper and say he forgives him for killing a loved one. Criminals harm and kill ordinary citizens. Vigilantes kill criminals. That’s justice for me.

Posted by Rosie I. Tan at January 9, 2009, 8:45 am

I appreciate you taking time to post a very long comment ma’m.

Believe it or not, I saw violence first hand when robbers entered our house, took our valuables, beat up my father with a gun when he resisted their attempt to kidnap my kid brother.

I, too, remember the 80s staying out after 6 p.m. was prohibited as NPA killing squads ran roughshod on the city’s justice system and killed at will. Maybe that time, answering force with force might be the answer. But times have changed and vigilantism is no longer warranted in a civilized society.

I agree with you that vigilantism is a monster but in our case, the monster is no longer bottled up. Sure keeping that monster on a leash gives you a sense of security, but what’s stopping evil men from using that same monster against you?

What I’m concerned about ma’m are the copycats. I don’t believe for a minute that Batman’s killers belong to the DDS, nor do I believe that Duterte sanctioned his killing, but criminals can use the same M.O. and the public will readily believe it is the DDS and what happens? Nobody talks to the police. What about the surviving family of the slain man, don’t they deserve justice too?
What about due process? What about the minors getting snuffed, do they deserve it too?

Also, the killings have made us apathetic to murder while skewing our sense of justice. The nearly daily murders occur and that bad taste in the mouth doesn’t go away even if we look the other way and pretend nothing happened.

Anyway, I understand where you’re coming from and I think your fears for your children are very valid. While I don’t have kids of my own, I do have brothers and a sister, a mother and father. But making them safe is the job of the police, not the vigilantes. If that’s the case, we might as well do away with cops and give their salaries to the DDS since Davaoenos think they are doing a better job of scaring away criminals anyway.

Lastly, I will introduce you to another mother. Her name is Clarita Alia and she lost three of her children to the DDS within a two-year span. One was 16 and another was just 14 years old
(http://www.pcij.org/stories/2002/davao.html),

No mother deserves to see her children get buried.

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