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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Sunday, January 22, 2017
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THE dictionary defines police state as a country where the government controls people’s freedom through the police. Does the Philippines fit into that definition?
We hate to admit it, but such a reality has already reared its ugly head with the spate of killings done by men in uniform who are supposed to be our protectors, culminating in the fatal strangulation of Korean national Jee Ick-joo, 53, by SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel.
Ironically, it’s now this rogue cop’s turn to be on the receiving end of terror; he worries for his life inside the same police camp where is now detained. He could not sleep. Too late for him to abide by the golden rule: “Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you.”
Now he would not want to suffer the same fate as his Korean victim. Asking to turn state witness, he lamented, “I was just following an order.”
He seemed to deny the perception that he led the group of “law enforcers” who kidnapped Jee on October 18, 2016 in Angeles City, Pampanga in the guise of a “drug raid.” If he were not the leader, then a higher, unidentified police officer could have been the mastermind who now has the urgent motive to silence him.
Philippine National Police chief Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, however, asserted that Sta. Isabel could not be state witness because “he is the guiltiest.”
But what if the low-ranking Sta. Isabel was indeed following higher command?
Let us recall that victim Jee Ick-joo was taken along with his Filipino maid by men who announced a police raid at his Angeles City home. The maid was subsequently freed, but Jee remained missing despite the payment of P5 million by his wife, Choi Kyung-jin. It was not until two weeks ago that a Manila newspaper “scooped” the story.
There is no indication that President Duterte would “let go” of Sta. Isabel in the same manner that he did to Supt. Marvin Marcos, who helmed the composite squad who killed Mayor Rolando Espinosa in his prison cell in Baybay City on October 26, 2016. Due to public indignation that has already heated up here and in South Korea, another cover-up could erode what little credibility is left in him.
Probably to keep Duterte off the heat, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a rabid Duterte follower, initiated the call for Bato to resign.
Assuming Bato resigns by order of Duterte, it would be of no use. It is already a public perception that the President himself is behind the boldness of the police to kill suspected drug pushers and addicts on the alibi of “self-defense.” In only six months of the Duterte rule, more than 6,000 small individuals have died in the “war on drugs” without due process.
The Jee case has prompted South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se to demand that the Philippine government dig deeper for more Korean skeletons in the police closet. Lest we forget, three other Koreans were murdered in the same month (October 2016) and the same province (Pampanga). The dead bodies of two men and a woman, all Koreans, were found dead with gunshot wounds to the head at Bacolor, Pampanga. That case was promptly reported in the media but has also remained unsolved.
What if South Korea issues a travel advisory dissuading its people from visiting the Philippines? The Jee case is not isolated. A report published by the US-based Wall Street Journal depicts the Philippines as the “most dangerous place to be Korean,” citing more than 50 Koreans killed here in the last five years.
With her nationals numbering more than 100,000 at any given time, South Korea is the largest source of Philippine tourists, besting China, Japan and the United States. Losing them would mean our financial loss./PN
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