Original Posting February 23, 2017
A Tale of Two “Armies” – An EJK (Extra Judicial Killing) Army and an Army of Trolls
Can one stand strong on the two shaky legs of arguments Ad Hominem and Ad Baculum?
It is natural for people to identify with
personalities and groups fighting the
established order. Why not? Most people
have nothing to lose but their misery and poverty.
Go for change, then, at all cost;
for the better, surely, but, if need be, even for worse,
(the fallacious temptation goes that there will be time later to set things right.)
How, then, can “change” (Pagbabago) be achieved or maintained?
The regime, to defend its new order of “change”, uses two basic weapons:
an army of trolls and an EJK army. Are they for real?
What are they? How do they work? Hear some The Gardeners’ tales.
A Gardener proposed to read (and discuss) Sean Williams’ piece in the New Republic that had been published January 4th 2017: “Since Rodrigo Duterte was elected president of the Philippines last June, he has waged a brutal crackdown on drug dealers and addicts. Nearly 4,000 people [7,000 by February] have been killed by government forces, and Duterte has invoked the Holocaust to describe the scope of his ambition. ‘Hitler massacred three million Jews,’ he declared in September. ‘Now there is three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.’”
Duterte’s authoritarian rhetoric gets some condemnations … “But there’s another front in his war on drugs that has escaped international attention. Last fall, as I reported on the violence in the Philippines, I picked up an ardent critic on social media. Her name was Madelyn, and she was young and attractive, with long hair and deep, brown eyes. When I posted about Duterte’s war on drugs, Madelyn responded with derision. ‘Maybe u are anti-Duterte TROLL,’ she tweeted. ‘A foreigner who knows NOTHING bout my country.’ She seemed to devote her waking hours to spreading her love of Duterte and assailing anyone who questioned him, posting dozens of times a day. ‘My President and I am proud of him,’ one tweet read. ‘Get lost critics!’
“Madelyn, it appears, is part of a vast and effective ‘keyboard army’ that Duterte and his backers have mobilized to silence dissenters and create the illusion that he enjoys widespread public support. Each day, hundreds of thousands of supporters—both paid and unpaid—take to social media to proselytize Duterte’s deadly gospel. They rotate through topics like corruption, drug abuse, and U.S. interference, and post links to hastily cobbled-together, hyper-partisan web sites at all hours of the day and night. Though social media is designed to make each user appear to be a unique individual whose views are her own, Madelyn and her cohort stick exclusively to the Duterte talking points, without any of the cat GIFs, funny asides, jokes with friends, or other elements that populate most people’s feeds.”
When Facebook and Twitter were founded a decade ago, they ushered in a new era that was to allow ordinary citizens to have their voices heard alongside—or even above—those of establishment insiders. “From the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter and recent demonstrations against Vladimir Putin, activists have used social media to attract followers and broadcast their messages free from official oversight. But increasingly, authoritarian regimes like Duterte’s are deploying social media to disseminate official propaganda… and maintain their grip on power. What began as a tool of freedom and democracy is being turned into a weapon of repression.” And the Philippines seems to be one of the pioneers in this regard.
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“Duterte’s social media campaign began while he was the mayor of Davao, where he allegedly ran death squads to curb rampant drug dealing and other street crimes. In November 2015, when he decided to run for president, he enlisted a marketing consultant named Nic Gabunada to assemble a social media army with a budget of just over $200,000. Gabunada used the money to pay hundreds of prominent online voices to flood social media with pro-Duterte comments, popularize hashtags, and attack critics. Despite being vastly outspent by his rivals, Duterte swept to power with almost 40 percent of the vote. After the upset victory, the new president’s spokesman issued a warm thanks to Duterte’s 14 million social media ‘volunteers.’
“The government pays online trolls up to $2,000 a month to create fake social media accounts and flood the digital airwaves with propaganda.
“The Philippines seems tailor-made for this kind of propaganda machine. The median age in the country is only 23 years old, and almost half of its 103 million citizens are active social media users. Access to Facebook is provided free with all smartphones, but Filipinos incur data charges when visiting other web sites, including those of newspapers. As a result, millions of citizens rely on social media for virtually all of their news and information, consuming a daily diet of partisan opinion that masquerades as fact.
“Duterte has taken advantage of this media landscape. Online trolls can earn up to $0,000 a month creating fake accounts on social media, and then using those ‘bots’ [as they are called] to flood the digital airwaves with pro-Duterte propaganda. According to Affinio, a social media analytics firm, a staggering 20 percent of all Twitter accounts that mention Duterte are actually bots. Thanks in part to this constant thrum of pro-Duterte messaging, the president has maintained an approval rating of more than 80 percent.
“As my encounters with Madelyn illustrate, Duterte’s supporters are also quick to attack the president’s critics. ….Eliezer Carlos, a human rights advocate, was forced to change his Facebook profile after he received repeated threats of violence. In a country where antigovernment activists have been killed during Duterte’s drug war, Carlos takes such threats seriously. ‘Sometimes you go home, you’re alone, and you need to buy something from the store,’ he says. ‘Then the fear kicks in.’
“From China to Russia, governments are using social media to crack down on dissent and maintain their grip on power.
“Such tactics are being employed by authoritarian regimes around the world. China’s Communist Party has mobilized a network of government bureaucrats known as the ‘50 cent’ army to post 450 million fake comments a year on social media. In Russia, the Kremlin finances a huge army of trolls who post disinformation all over the web. In Egypt, where Twitter and Facebook helped topple Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the military-led government has tracked, silenced, and in some cases killed its opponents. In many countries, governments routinely spy on social media accounts, assisted by a raft of private firms. Procera Networks, a Silicon Valley startup, has signed a contract with the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to extract usernames and passwords from unencrypted web sites. The Turkish government could use that information to spy on political opponents. ‘People could well die from this work,’ one former Procera employee told Forbes.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Back in 2012, as Facebook prepared for its IPO, Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to investors touting the company’s role in helping ordinary citizens hold their leaders accountable. ‘By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible,’ he wrote. ….
“Unfortunately, Zuckerberg was only half right. Social media has undeniably helped activist movements draw attention to their causes. But regimes around the world have figured out how to use social media to build even bigger megaphones, effectively drowning out dissent. In the Philippines, the massive online army has chilled public opposition [for starters] to the crackdown on drug users. In one Manila slum I visited, where English terms like ‘human rights’ and ‘extrajudicial killings’ are sprinkled into Tagalog like grim shibboleths, almost everyone opposes the bloodletting. Some criticize the drug lords; others save their ire for overzealous cops. But no one blames the president. When I mention Duterte’s orders to shoot drug addicts, one mother simply shrugs her shoulders. ‘I don’t read the newspaper,’ she says. She gets her news exclusively from Facebook” – end of Sean Williams’ tale.
Rappler.com surely did Gardeners a great service when through Maria A. Ressa it published last year a series precisely on this topic.
They looked at the paid propaganda taking over social media.
They took apart the new information ecosystem, its impact on human behavior, and how its weaknesses could be exploited.
They showed up 26 fake accounts on Facebook, which together extend to a network that influences more than 970,000 accounts.
They looked at anonymous accounts and how they amplify existing networks. Quite a job! But it will be quite a while before enough numbers of us the people will have some idea of what is really going on. Meanwhile the job of the concerned is to educate with solid information and organize for action.
Ressa calls it “Weaponizing the Internet”
and says: “It’s a strategy of ‘death by a thousand cuts’ – a chipping away at facts, using half-truths that fabricate an alternative reality by merging the power of bots and fake accounts on social media to manipulate real people.
“A bot is a program written to give an automated response to posts on social media, creating the perception that there’s a tidal wave of public opinion. Since this is machine-driven, it can manufacture thousands of posts per minute.
“A fake account is a manufactured online identity, sometimes known as a troll depending on the account’s behavior. Not all trolls are part of a paid propaganda campaign, but for now let’s focus on the paid initiatives, which can pay a troll up to P100,000/month.
“Often, dozens of these fake accounts work together along with anonymous pages, strengthening each other’s reach for Facebook’s algorithms. These networks can work with or without bots.
“A small group of 3 operators, a source tells Rappler, can earn as much as P5 million a month.
“Because they often disregard truth and manipulate emotions, these networks easily game Facebook’s algorithm.
“In the Philippines and around the world, political advocacy pages, made specifically for Facebook, are cleverly positioned and engineered to take over your news feed.
“That allows these propaganda accounts to create a social movement that is widening the cracks in Philippine society by exploiting economic, regional, and political divides.
“’It unleashed a flood of anger against Duterte critics that has created a chilling effect.
“It was specifically brought into sharp relief during these past elections, where the amount of hatred and vitriol on the internet was just intolerable,’ Vince Lazatin, Executive Director of Transparency & Accountability Network, said during a recent panel on Technology and the Public Debate. “’It silenced people into submission. The trolls have found a way to weaponize the internet.’”
“It’s not clear whether these accounts used for the campaign are working with official government channels today.
“What is clear is they share the same key message: a fanatic defense of Duterte, who’s portrayed as the father of the nation deserving the support of all Filipinos.”
Social Media was crucial to the Duterte election
Maria Ressa again, reporting: “Former activist [NDF] and ex-ABS-CBN sales chief Nic Gabunada headed Duterte’s social media efforts. He told Rappler in a May 31 interview that he built the network with P10 million and up to 500 volunteers, who tapped their own networks.
“They were organized into 4 main groups: OFWs or overseas Filipino workers, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. He said each volunteer handled between 300 to 6,000 members, but that the largest group had 800,000 members. (Read: Duterte’s P10M social media campaign: Organic, volunteer-drive)
“It was a decentralized campaign: each group created its own content, but the campaign narrative and key daily messages were centrally determined and cascaded for execution. Gabunada emphasized these posts were done by real people, not bots.
“Analysts agreed that the 2016 elections were the most engaged in Philippine history, but they also pointed out that the period also highlighted some of the angriest and vicious political discourse that’s transforming our democracy.”
Rappler remembers, a chronology: “By March [2016, before the May election], two students at UP Los Baños had been threatened by an online mob….In April, a young woman who posted she was campaigning against Duterte was deluged with threats and harassment. (READ: ‘Sana ma-rape ka’: Netizens bully anti-Duterte voter)….
“Shortly before election day, she tested laws governing cyberbullying by filing 34 complaints in court.
“The day after he won, Duterte called for healing and his campaign team supported and trended his message using the hashtag #HealingStartsNow.
“It didn’t last long. The soon-to-be president made numerous controversial statements in late night press conferences, including what could be seen as a justification for journalist killings and his wolf-whistle of a GMA7 reporter.
“By the beginning of June, Duterte announced he would boycott media and channeled all statements and press conferences through state television network, PTV, and RTVM.
“He didn’t break that boycott of private media until August 1 [2 months].
“In those two months, the campaign machinery pivoted to propaganda and threats, first attacking ABS-CBN, then Inquirer (largely because of its Kill List keeping track of extrajudicial killings).
“GMA7 and Rappler took the hot seat after Duterte wolf-whistled at a GMA7 reporter, Mariz Umali, at a press conference, and Rappler reporter Pia Ranada-Robles questioned him on it…..
“The social media attacks were vicious and personal. They built on their campaign messages, continuing to rail against the Liberal Party and building fear for a ‘yellow army.’
“Anonymous and fake accounts rallied real people to create and spread memes with simple messages that contained a grain of truth, the most efficient for FUD [which stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt – a disinformation strategy that spreads negative or false information to fuel fear]….”
Said Ressa: “When the leader of a nation refuses direct access to journalists, controls the narrative top down through established state groups, and is echoed bottom up by social media initiatives, it creates a chilling effect on 2 fronts:
“Access becomes a personal favor for reporters, removing a professional environment and creating a more feudal landscape. Reporters, if they want access, think twice about questioning power.
“Critical posts on social media are immediately attacked, forcing ‘normal’ people to leave the conversation. Many close their Facebook accounts, leaving the field open for more sophisticated manipulation in an increasingly growing echo chamber.
“On September 19, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines called on the government to investigate social media attacks against journalists Gretchen Malalad and Jamela Alindogan-Caudron.
“On September 22, President Duterte asked his supporters to stop threatening journalists.
“But his statement did little to stem the propaganda attacks.
“Over the weekend, Reuters reporters Manny Mogato and Karen Lema were targeted after reporting President Duterte’s remarks about Hitler….
These all impact public perception.
“Fallacious reasoning, leaps in logic, poisoning the well – these are only some of the propaganda techniques that have helped shift public opinion on key issues.
“Take for example what was once a prevailing acceptance of human rights and the idea of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ Today there seems to be a wide acceptance of murder, especially of drug pushers, and any attempt to question that is portrayed as part of a conspiracy theory.
It’s part of the reason many silently accept that in just 11 weeks, 3,546 people died in the government’s ‘war on drugs. [These figures from the PNP were later regularly revised upwards].
“After all, when someone criticizes the police or government on Facebook, immediate attacks are posted, including ‘someone should rape your daughter,’ ‘how many people were raped by pushers,’ ‘why not talk about those killed by drugs,’ ‘mayaman kasi kayo,’ and many more .
The Special Role of Facebook
In the Philippines, where the median age of its 100 million people is 23 years old, more than 96% of Filipinos on the internet are on Facebook. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had clear views about Facebook’s role when asked last August: “We’re a technology company. We’re not a media company.”
Be that as it may, Facebook’s algorithms, created in a black box, are extremely powerful in shaping reality and creating echo chambers that could be harmful to democracy.
They cater to our weaknesses, what psychologists call cognitive bias – when we unconsciously gravitate towards those who echo what we believe.
With 1.7 billion active monthly users worldwide, Facebook. In fact, is effectively the world’s largest news source, the umbrella organization where nearly all news content flows.
Its algorithms decide what you see on your feed.
“In many ways, the algorithm has become an editor,” said Dr. Jeffrey Herbst, President and CEO of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. FB as editor exercises the gatekeeping function that once gave news groups its power to shape the national narrative. It’s as simple as that.
The Duterte regime, for its part, has taken on the services of Presstitutes like 34-year-old Mocha Uson, a singer-dancer who grew her Facebook page with sex advice, and sessions in the bedroom with her all-girl band, the Mocha Girls. Uson dares her critics to volunteer for government, and strengthens her own attacks against anyone who challenges – or just questions – President Duterte.
“In a September post, she boasted that her Facebook page, which has more than 4 million followers, has surpassed the engagement metrics of top media groups in the Philippines.
“Her Facebook page is the lynchpin of a sophisticated pro-Duterte propaganda machine: in this post, she gives instructions for supporters to follow other Duterte political advocacy pages and supporters as well as anonymous blogs.
“That simple action amplifies the network effect and makes their entire collective more powerful.” Maria Ressa observed.
In an interview last June with Rappler, Gabunada, who headed the Duterte campaign communications team, said his P10-million budget allowed him to tap into a robust volunteer network of about 400-500 whose individual networks at the time of the campaign reached hundreds of thousands – the largest group having about 800,000 members.
But even after an overwhelming victory, Gabunada explains there is a need to continue campaigning because they got “only 40% of the votes” and need more than that to allow Duterte to effectively govern.
What then is to be done by those concerned enough to be raring to act? Maria Ressa says: “Spot and actively call out the fake accounts, the sock puppets, the trolls.
“Gather evidence and report them. Don’t bother to engage them because it is a lost cause. Help clean up the social media space and restore it to what it used to be, or at least a semblance of what it used to be.
“Abandoning social media and not challenging lies being peddled and spread is losing by default to the trolls and propagandists,” Maria’s tale concludes.
Can one stand strong on two shaky legs?
If “Trolls” and “Deceit” and “Ad Hominem” describe one leg, the other leg is described by “Death Squads” and “Killings” and “Ad Baculum” arguments.
A Filipino Redemptorist, Fr. Amado Picardal, CSsR last year broke the sound barrier of fortitude by publishing “The Victims of the Davao Death Squad: Consolidated Report 1998-2015.”
“I RECENTLY received a consolidated report of the killings perpetrated by the Davao Death Squad (DDS) since 1998 up to the end of 2015. The source will not be mentioned for obvious reasons. Suffice it to say that since the killings started, they have been monitoring these cases. I know them very well and I have been collaborating with them as we denounced these killings and worked with the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Watch. They are hesitant to make the report public out of apprehension that it will be used for political purposes. I believe that to hide this would be a disservice to the nation since I believe that the body count could multiply many times over throughout the whole country in the next six years. …
“The total number of persons killed by the DDS from 1998-2015 is 1,424. Let me repeat in words–ONE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR victims. This can be considered as MASS MURDER perpetrated by the same group, inspired and supported by the same persons. The data does not include those killed in other cities where the DDS have expanded franchise-style.
“Out of 1,424, there were 1,367 male and 57 female. This means that those murdered by the DDS were not only men, there were also fifty-seven women.
“Looking at this according to age there were 132 children killed (17 and below)–126 boys and 6 girls. The youngest was a 12 years boy and a 15 year girl. There was a 9 year old boy who was killed by a stray bullet–he was not an intended target.
“There was a total of 476 young adults (18-25) murdered–466 male, 19 female. The number of older adults (26 years and above) killed were 612 (466 male, 28 female). There were victims whose ages were not given–201 (191 male, 10 female).
“Thus, almost 50 percent of the victims were young people (children and young adults). Most the victims were killed in urban poor areas (e.g. Buhangin, Agdao, Bangkerohan, Boulevard, Matina, Toril). Most of those killed were involved in illegal drugs – as users and pushers. There were also those involved in petty crimes–theft, cell-phone snatching, gang members. There were 14 cases of mistaken identity–they were not the intended targets but the DDS hit men mistakenly hit the wrong target. There were some who had gone away after being warned that they were on the hit list and after some years, after reforming their lives, came back thinking that they were safe. Their names were still on the list so they were still killed….
“Thus, one can say that majority of the victims of the DDS were young and poor–juvenile delinquents considered as the weeds of society. There were no reports of drug lords or big time criminals among those killed by the DDS. There were two journalists who were believed to have been murdered by the DDS–Jun Pala and Ferdie ‘Batman’ Limtungan. Jun Pala was a radio commentator who constantly spoke out against the DDS and Mayor Duterte. There were two previous attempts on his life and he accused Duterte of being behind these attacks. He was finally killed by motorcycle riding men on the third try. Ferdie ‘Batman’ Lintuan also spoke out against the DDS and also the alleged anomalies in the construction of the People’s Park which he linked with Mayor Duterte. He was also killed by motorcycle riding men.
“The victims of the DDS were unarmed. They did not fight back. Many were just sitting down on street-corners outside sari-sari stores, talking with friends and then suddenly shot in cold blood. There were some who were just released from prison and while waiting for public transportation on the side of the road were suddenly shot by motorcycling men. How the DDS knew the exact time and place they were to be released is amazing. Another victim was killed inside his home in front of his mother and three children who were begging the DDS not to kill him. One of the most well-known case is Clarita Alia–a vegetable vendor in Bangkerohan–whose teen-age sons (who were below 17 years old) were murdered by the DDS. I was asked by Clarita to bless the body of her boy, Fernando before he was buried.
“I have personally witnessed the aftermath of two DDS killings. The first was in our parish church in Bajada. While officiating a Wedding Mass I heard shots outside in the carpark. I immediately rushed outside after the Mass to find out what happened. I saw the body of a teen-age boy lying in our church ground surrounded by people. He had just been shot by DDS hit-men while sitting in the car park with his friends. The killers escaped on a motor-cycle. There was a police car nearby but the police just fired warning shots into the air and did not go after the killers. The boy who was killed lived in a nearby slums area. He had been suspected as one of those who broke the window of a car parked in our church and stole some items two weeks earlier.
The second time I witnessed the aftermath of a DDS killing was while mountain-biking in Lomondao, a distant barangay in Davao. As I neared the place I met three motorcycle riding men speeding back to the city. When I arrived in the place I saw people who gathered around the body of a young boy. When I asked what happened, someone told me it was the DDS. The boy was cell-phone snatcher and drug user. He added, the boy deserved to die.
in Bajada. While officiating a Wedding Mass I heard shots outside in the carpark. I immediately rushed outside after the Mass to find out what happened. I saw the body of a teen-age boy lying in our church ground surrounded by people. He had just been shot by DDS hit-men while sitting in the car park with his friends. The killers escaped on a motor-cycle. There was a police car nearby but the police just fired warning shots into the air and did not go after the killers. The boy who was killed lived in a nearby slums area. He had been suspected as one of those who broke the window of a car parked in our church and stole some items two weeks earlier.
“The second time I witnessed the aftermath of a DDS killing was while mountain-biking in Lomondao, a distant barangay in Davao. As I neared the place I met three motorcycle riding men speeding back to the city. When I arrived in the place I saw people who gathered around the body of a young boy. When I asked what happened, someone told me it was the DDS. The boy was cell-phone snatcher and drug user. He added, the boy deserved to die.
“The killings have not stopped. The DDS continue their murderous spree even to this day. For the last five years (2011-2015), there were 385 victims of extrajudicial killings in Davao–39 of them below seventeen years old and 118 young adults (18-25). In 2011 there 111 reported DDS killings, in 2012 there were 61, in 2013 there were 101, in 2014 there were 52 and there were 60 in 2015. The DDS usually take a break during the campaign period. They will continue their operations after the elections.
“So far, no one has been held accountable for these killings. There has been no official investigation by the police or the city government. The police do not acknowledge the existence of the DDS. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) came to Davao for a public hearing and also met secretly with witnesses – family of the victims and former members of DDS. Although the CHR recommended prosecution, this could not prosper because nobody was willing to testify in court out of fear. The DDS are still around and anybody who testifies will surely be targeted for assassination. I have met some of these witnesses and understand their fear. They claimed that some of those listed as victims were their former companions who knew too much and were suspected of betraying the DDS. So while former DDS members talked about how they were recruited, trained and how they operate, and who their handlers were and their link with some police and local government officials, all these information could not stand in court because they were not willing to testify in spite of the sworn statements made before the CHR. Much of the information can also be found in the report of the Human Rights Watch in 2009, ‘You Can Die Anytime: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao.’ One of the findings of the Human Rights Watch report reveals the link between the DDS and the police:
“According to these ‘insiders,’ most members of the DDS are either former communist New People’s Army insurgents who surrendered to the government or young men who themselves were death squad targets and joined the group to avoid being killed. Most can make far more money with the DDS than in other available occupations. Their handlers, called amo (boss), are usually police officers or ex-police officers. They provide them with training, weapons and ammunition, motorcycles, and information on the targets. Death squad members often use .45-caliber handguns, a weapon commonly used by the police but normally prohibitively expensive for gang members and common criminals.
The insiders told Human Rights Watch that the amo obtain information about targets from police or barangay (village or city district) officials, who compile lists of targets. The amo provides members of a death squad team with as little as the name of the target, and sometimes an address and a photograph. Police stations are then notified to ensure that police officers are slow to respond, enabling the death squad members to escape the crime scene, even when they commit killings near a police station.”
The Human Rights Watch Report also revealed the modus operandi:
“Our research found that the killings follow a pattern. The assailants usually arrive in twos or threes on a motorcycle without a license plate. They wear baseball caps and buttoned shirts or jackets, apparently to conceal their weapons underneath.
warning, often in broad daylight and in presence of multiple eyewitnesses, for whom they show little regard. And as quickly as they arrive, they ride off—but almost always before the police appear.”
“They deserved to die.” This is what Mayor Duterte said while denying involvement in these extrajudicial killings. At one time, he read a list in his TV program. A few weeks later many of those in the list were killed by the DDS.
“They deserve to die.” This is also the attitude of many residents of the city towards the victims of the DDS. This shows who are behind them and why there has been little outcry regarding these mass murders.
“It appears that the DDS killings are the center-piece of Mayor Duterte’s campaign against criminality in Davao City. To fight against criminality, you simply kill the criminals through extra-judicial executions carried out by the DDS. No need to arrest them, put them on trial and imprison them if proven guilty. No need for due process of the law. Criminals do not have rights–that is a western concept. For criminals there can only be one punishment–death. It doesn’t matter if you are a petty criminal–even if you are only a drug addict or pusher or cell-phone snatcher, you deserve to die. The killings are meant to be a deterrent to crime – to instill fear on everyone so that they will stop committing crime. According to the Human Rights Watch Report:
“‘The continued death squad operation reflects an official mindset in which the ends are seen as justifying the means. The motive appears to be simple expedience: courts are viewed as slow or inept. The murder of criminal suspects is seen as easier and faster than proper law enforcement. Official tolerance and support of targeted killing of suspected criminals promotes rather than curbs the culture of violence that has long plagued Davao City and other places where such killings occur.’
“It has been very difficult to speak out against these extrajudicial killings because majority of the people in Davao support these. The archdiocese of Davao under the leadership of Archbishop Fernando Capalla came out with a pastoral letter: “Thou Shalt Not Kill” and held several prayer vigils. We were a minority–a small voice whose cry in the wilderness was drowned out by the applause of the majority. The blood of 1,424 victims of the DDS was the price that was paid so that there could be peace and order–so that all can walk at night without fear. This was the peace of the cemetery, an order maintained by death squads–by criminals.
“And the mass murder continues and there will be more blood spilled–not just in Davao but the entire Philippines. Mayor Duterte promised that if elected ‘the 1,000 will become 100,000.’ He declared that ‘it will be bloody.’ He said there will be ‘no need for more jails–just funeral parlors.’ He promised to ‘eliminate criminality in the entire country within 3-6 months.’ How will he do it? The answer is what happened in Davao–through the DDS under the direction of many police officers who deny their existence, with the financial support coming from businessmen and also drawn from the government coffers.
“’I’m willing to go to hell, as long as the people I serve live in paradise.’ Is this an admission on the part of Mayor Duterte that what he has done is a grave sin against God that could someday earn him divine punishment?
“Is Davao a paradise after 18 years of DDS extrajudicial killings? Has criminality been eradicated? According to the data from PNP covering 2010-2015, out of 15 chartered cities Davao was fourth in terms of Total Index of Crimes: 37,797 incidents. In terms of murder, Davao was No. 1 (1,032 incidents) and in terms of rape Davao was No. 2 (843 incidents). This report gives the impression that in Davao you can be murdered and raped any time. Murder is not really that bad if the DDS and the Mayor can do it. Rape is not really that bad if the Mayor can callously joke about it, wishing he was the first in line when he heard that a hostage–an Australian Lay Missionary–was raped.
“If it is alright to kill suspected criminals–who can stop any one from taking the law into their own hands? Anyone can become judge and executioner–not only the police and public officials. Anyone can form their own vigilante groups. …. Meanwhile, the big criminals, the big thieves and murderers will continue to rule the land. If it is o.k. to kill criminals, who can prevent anyone from killing the biggest Criminal of them all? We could be entering another dark period of our history–like the dictatorial period in the past or worse.” End of Picardal tale. FINIS.