Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jun 2016 Source: Philippine Star (Philippines) Copyright: PhilSTAR Daily Inc. 2016 Contact: http://www.philstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/622 Author: Ana Marie Pamintuan LOWLIFES When we see corrupt public officials also turning up dead in the streets, with cardboard signs declaring "nagnakaw sa taumbayan, huwag tularan," we will believe Dirty Rody and his trigger-happy kindred spirits mean business. Since this could decimate the ranks of Congress, paralyze the judiciary, and shut down many local government offices plus the Bureau of Customs, Land Transportation Office and other revenue-collecting agencies, I don't think we will ever hear Dirty Rody endorsing the same mass killing for these agencies' crooks that he has justified for corrupt media workers and ordered for drug dealers. From the way he rants against crooks within media ranks, it's obvious that president-elect Rodrigo Duterte is talking from first-hand experience. He should be glad to see, from responses to his harangue, that no one is denying his accusation. But there are "lowlifes" and "vultures" in all sectors of Philippine society, and all along I thought politics and government in general had the lion's share of them. Should we line them up and kill them all, and will we get P5 million per head as a reward? If we go by percentages, media workers get an inordinate share of lethal attacks in our country. And we can't even tell for sure who was killed over corruption because hardly any case has been solved and few suspects have been arrested. The principal defendant in the world's single worst attack on journalists Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Maguindanao massacre notoriety may even be cleared since his former lawyer is now the president-elect's spokesman. Having said this, I think Duterte actually enjoys bantering with journalists. You have to enjoy the company of reporters to hold two-hour press conferences regularly. We boycotted coverage of President Corazon Aquino over grievances that included too few press briefings, so those covering Duterte should consider themselves lucky. Two-hour press conference with President Cory? Not on your life. She boycotted us back, refusing to even look at us as she walked past us. The matter was quickly settled, with our admission that we couldn't stop presidential coverage, and she with the ugly reality about mass media in a free society: can't live with them, can't live without them. This is a lesson Duterte and his team may want to learn quickly - but I think he already knows this. Duterte is right - journalists can be full of themselves. And we can also be rude and ask idiotic questions. I believe Duterte, for all the profane and vulgar speech, also respects women in an old-fashioned way, and can in fact be protective of those he thinks are worthy of respect. The Women Development Code of Davao City, which he enacted as mayor way back in 1997, is one of the most thorough city ordinances promoting the welfare of women. His tearful visit to his mother's grave after his victory was also touching. Since I know a creep who threw out his mother when he no longer had any use for her, I believe any man dedicated to his mom can't be all bad. President Cory never sanctioned the killing of journalists, although several were murdered during her watch. She just sued The STAR columnist Luis Beltran and publisher Max Soliven for libel, after Beltran wrote that she hid under her bed at the height of the 1989 coup attempt. She demanded damages that she planned to donate to charity. We lost the case before the Manila Regional Trial Court after an unusually swift court trial, but the conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeals when she was no longer in power. Much later, President Cory gave the rueful observation that one couldn't win a fight against "those who buy ink by the barrel." Duterte, who challenged a print journalist last week in an obscenity-laced tirade, will probably dismiss her observation as BS. Libel laws in the Philippines are skewed in favor of a free press. Proposals to decriminalize libel may in fact be more damaging to the survival of newspapers, since the alternative for those who feel aggrieved by defamation or wrongful reporting is a civil suit where the required preponderance of evidence for conviction is much lower. The cost of litigation and damages if convicted in a civil case can shut down a small newspaper. Still, considering how affordable hired guns are in this country, and how easy it is to get away with murder, killing a journalist to stop critical reporting is still a better option for those who are in a position to do so. Whether inadvertently or with malicious deliberation, with Duterte's intemperate remarks, he has just declared open season on journalists - - all three types that he described: the genuine ones, the "mouthpieces for vested interests" and "vultures pretending to be journalists." In this killing season, if the corrupted lowlifes can be killed, why don't we toss in the corruptor usually politicians themselves? The Duterte camp has reportedly set aside what's left of his campaign war chest to cover a P5-million bounty that he is dangling for each of about 200 notorious drug dealers he wants dead before Christmas. While he's at it and Pinoys are still in a murderous mood, maybe he should also put a price on the heads of the notoriously corrupt in certain government agencies. English tycoon Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, in his Manila visit, urged the business sector to do its part by refraining from resorting to bribes. He has a point. On the other hand, as a number of upright citizens trying to eke out a decent living in this country have sighed to me, it's very hard to be an honest businessman in an environment designed to be rotten. What's an honest entrepreneur to do, for example, if his small shipment is right there in front of him at the Port of Manila, and the Customs guy in charge is demanding about four times more than the legitimate amount for its release, or else he's in for a long wait and repeated visits to the same office and the same crook? Unless systems and procedures are changed, simply eliminating crooked personnel won't solve the problem. In the short term, shock and awe through the killing of crooks can have an immediate effect. But in a society that cherishes civil liberties, law enforcement through state-sponsored killings tends to have diminishing returns. Without structural reforms, the shock dissipates and the lowlifes return to their old ways. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom