‘JUNK DICK’

RALI sa Dumaguete City noong nakaraang linggo, pumutak si Dick Gordon na parang loro sa ibabaw ng entablado. Lumampas sa takdang oras na tatlong minuto upang ipagtanggol ang sarili laban sa mga tuligsa sa mga social networking site tulad ng Meta. Iyan ang sakit ni Dick. Masyadong masatsat at makasarili si Dick. Tinawag niyang fake news ang mga batikos sa kanya. Nakakatawa lang.

Hindi natanggap ni Dick ang kumakalat na kampanya na ilaglag siya ng kampo ng Leni-Kiko tandem sa listahan ng mga kandidatong sa senador. Hindi natutuwa ang kampo ni Leni na isama si Dick sa mga kandidato dahil dati siyang masugid na tagapagtanggol ni Rodrigo Duterte. Hindi masikmura si Dick sapagkat ipinagtanggol niya ang madugo ngunit bigo na giyera kontra droga ni Duterte.

Hindi nakakalimutan ng puwersang demokratiko ng bansa kung paano ipinagtanggol ni Dick si Duterte sa walang habas na patayan sa giyera sa droga. Katulong si Alan Peter Cayetano, isang walang kwentang mambabatas, at Manny Pacquiao inagaw ni Dick kay Leila de Lima ang pagiging hepe ng Blue Ribbon Committee ng Senado na pangunahing trabaho ay siyasatin ang mga kawalanghiyaan sa gobyerno at pumanday ng batas tungkol sa mga anomalya.

Tinawag ni Sonny Trillanes na “comite de absuelto’ ang komite ni Dick dahil inilulusot niya ang mga maysala. Minaniobra ni Dick ang kanyang komite upang iulat na walang kinalamanan at pananagutan ang gobyerno ni Duterte sa walang tigil na patayan tungkol sa digmaan kontra droga. Hindi umano “state sponsored” ang mga patayan kahit order ito ni Duterte. Isa ito sa mga dahilang kung bakit nasama ang kanyang pangalan sa mga inihabla sa International Criminal Court (ICC).

Nakapagtataka ang simulain ni Dick Gordon sa extrajudicial killings (EJKs). Hindi karaniwan senador si Dick. Siya ang chairman ng Philippine Red Cross (PRC) na ang pangunahing papel ay iligtas ang mga nasalanta at nanganganib ang buhay sa kalamidad. Kabaligtaran sa pagsuporta niya sa mga patayan sa ilalim ng administrasyon ni Duterte. Marapat na inalis siya sa PRC ng International Red Cross dahil sa kanyang paninindigan.

Kahit kinalaban niya si Duterte sa bilyon pisong nakawan sa Pharmally, hindi nalilimutan ang suporta ni Dick sa EJKs ni Duterte. Marapat na humingi ng paumanhin si Dick Gordon sa mga mamamayan. Ngunit mayabang si Dick. Walang katapatan sa sarili. Makasarili. Hindi niya gagawin ito. Kaya marapat na ihulog siya. Huwag isama sa listahan ng ihahalal sa Mayo 9.

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HALAW ang mga sumusunod sa aming aklat “KILL KILL KILL: EJKs in the Philippines; Crimes Against Humanity vs. Duterte Et. Al. At the ICC.” Nasa huling yugto na ako na pagsusulat.

ELENA GONZALES NARRATIVE. Elena Gonzales readily admitted that his son Lemond Gonzales was a drug user. A group of police officers forcibly entered their house on June 21, 2017. They asked all household members to go out to the nearby store in a corner, while pretending they were about to arrest Lemond. Hardly a few steps outside the house, they heard four consecutive gun shots. The incident happened in their house in Page 2 Bagong Silang. The police officers did not arrest Lemond but shot him inside the toilet, where he was defecating at the time of their arrival. She said Lemond was suffering from a stomach ailment at that time.

Gonzales said there was no investigation. Nothing followed after the incident. She went to police to inquire and follow up any official investigation, but she was given alibis. She said she was resigned that the police would not move to solve the issue. She said she could not expect justice from the Duterte government.

NATIVIDAD CASTILLO NARRATIVE. Her son Aldrin Castillo was gunned down in an incident at the corner of Herbosa and Yangco Streets in Tondo on October 2, 2017. Castillo, a welder, visited her married sister, who lived in the area, to install the air conditioning unit in her house in Tondo and bid her goodbye because he was about to leave and work as an overseas Filipino contract worker (OFW). Because it was early evening, Aldrin Castillo did not leave immediately after his visit to his sister. They were raised by their parents in that area and he knew many friends and acquaintances there. Aldrin was talking to friends at the intersection, when several police mobile cars roved at that time. Finally, he was caught by surprise when a motorcycle-rising tandem materialized from nowhere and shot him four times – two on the chest and one each on his cheek and neck. He died instantly. Aldrin did not use drugs, but appeared to be a random victim of violence in pursuit of the police objective to bring dead bodies before the altar of the war on drugs.

News about his murder spread quickly. His mother, Natividad Castillo, who was in Caloocan City, rushed to the scene when she received several text messages informing her of Aldrin’s fate. ‘Halos mabaliw ako ako sa nangyari dahil sa nangyari sa anak. Mabuti na lang nahawakan ko ang kamay niya bago siya alisin sa kalsada (I almost got mad at what happened to my son. It was good that I was able to hold his hand before his body was removed from the street.),” Natividad said. She said she noticed that the CCTV camera although functioning at the time of her son’s assassination was turned away to a different direction to record something else. There was hardly any police investigation and, according to her, she and her husband felt helpless because they could not turn to any agency to seek justice.

From the summary execution of her son, Natividad Castillo metamorphosed to become a street activist. Although she did not finish high school, she forced herself to learn numerous things to become knowledgeable of the burning issues of the day. ‘I did not care in the past. I was happy to eat three meals a day and be with friends,” she said. Her son’s death opened new vistas for her to explore. In 2018, she spoke before a human rights forum in The Hague and she narrated her son’s murder to prove Duterte was bent to kill people with impunity. She is now a volunteer of the Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a Church-based non-profit group supporting and organizing the victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK) and their families. She helps in conducting house-to-house visits and talking to the families, scheduling meetings, and doing other things she can do for the organization. She is also involved in the counseling of the families of EJK victims.

‘QUOTA SYSTEM’. The four mothers we talked all believed that because the killings became indiscriminate and at random to include innocent persons, the antidrug campaign has become difficult to control. Duterte, through dela Rosa and other PNP officials, could have set a specific number of victims to force police officers to kill and meet the specified number. “This is the quota system,” Natividad Castillo said. Any failure to meet the quota was being frown upon and it was not good for the reputation of the police officers.

There was also the “palit ulo” (change head) scheme. Police would force a suspect of drug trade to identify users and pushers in a certain barangay. If he refuses, he would be killed and be counted as among the EJK victims. But if he cooperates and pointed another guy, police would spare his life but kill the other guy. This was a scheme that worked so well in many operations. They were included in the pieces of information, which several parties have submitted separately to the International Criminal Court in the crimes against humanity charges against Duterte and his cohorts.

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MGA PILING SALITA: “ The Class D predominates marcos jr.’s crowd, their desperation and poverty taken advantage of. All that his color red paints is a hellish future of problems. Meanwhile, Leni’s young volunteers and crowds fuel her campaign. Her pink sells hope and dynamism. She offers concrete solutions. The contrast is now defined. Only the deaf and blind will ignore it.” – Mashhur Sinsuat Glang, netizen