Beyond reform
Written for Paghimutad Negros Island Alternative Media
A video of a policeman unflinchingly killing a mother and her son over a petty quarrel gained the ire of the Internet. Hashtags condemning the police and denouncing the killings are trending. But the killings, most often state-sanctioned, are commonplace in Duterte’s Philippines.
It’s not that the people have forgotten about the more than 30,000 killed under the Duterte regime. It is just that the truth feels even more palpable when it is treated like a spectacle. Videographic evidence doesn’t lie. State machineries can’t spin their way out of the glaring truth depicted in that video taken by a bystander. However, the State can dismiss it is an anomaly, an exception rather than the rule. True enough, DILG Sec. Eduardo Año quickly called it “unfortunate, but an isolated case.”
This is yet another sleight of hand by State. They can’t spin the truth as the evidence is clear: a policeman killed civilians in broad daylight. But they can still dodge accountability from what that truth has revealed. They can make it seem like an individual’s frenzied madness and not an institutional problem. To treat it as an exception will only depict the mercenary tradition of the PNP and AFP as merely needing “reforms.” But throughout history, a reactionary state can only produce reactionary state forces. That is why it is urgent for us to position this seemingly isolated case into the larger, systemic machinations at play.
We need to know that the enemy is far larger than the armed men in uniforms, and that we should also center our ire into the very forces that enable and even give birth to them. We should raise our discussions into the roots of fascism and how it has shaped the reactionary state we have now. Elections might provide relief, but it won’t eradicate the decades’ old entrenchment of reactionary ideals within our system.
A review of our history reminds us that both the AFP and PNP are borne from the Philippine Constabulary, trained by the United States to preserve their neo-colonial interests in our country. The Philippines Constabulary has been responsible for the various human rights abuses during Martial Law. When we condemn such institutions like the AFP and PNP, we should not forget their historical role and how they were shaped by imperialism, in connivance with bureaucrat capitalists to preserve the status quo. Public safety is secondary for these armed men. Protecting and serving the ruling class is top priority.
That is why Duterte is so protective of the AFP and PNP, since he knows they are willing conspirators for his ever-growing tyranny. Duterte loves them like how a father loves his children. He spoils them with fat bonuses and forgives them for any crimes they might commit. PNP Chief Debold Sinas is one of those children, gleefully killing hundreds in Central Visayas under the command of his enabling father.
It should be clear that these intuitions are beyond rehabilitation, beyond reform. To insist on doing so will only embolden them to fulfill their mercenary roles in silence, and to even strengthen their culture of impunity. Case in point: PSMSgt. Jonel Nuezca, the policeman caught on video killing two civilians, have two pending homicide cases dismissed due to “lack of substantial evidence.”
For now, the anger of the people is resounding online. The problem with spectacles, especially on the internet, is eventually the fire will run out. The nameless masses in front of their keyboards will move on once another spectacle subsumes the present one. The attention spans of hashtags are limited and its power to wield concrete actions still depend on on-ground organizing. We should also envision a future where we don’t need videos to confirm the veracity of state violence. It is real. It is around us everywhere.
Most importantly, we need to sustain this anger toward concrete steps, particularly in building a strong ouster movement to decisively get rid of the enabler-in-chief in power. While systemic problems won’t go away completely by ousting a dictator, as proven in the false promises of Cory Aquino’s liberal democracy, it ensures that we, the people, will have space for discussions in paving the way toward genuine liberation. Defeating tyranny is still the people’s triumph, but the fight will continue for a better world, beyond despots and murderous policemen.
