By RACHEL ANN ROSALES PARR
GMA News
GMA News
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, known for being a ferocious watchdog and a sentinel of crime and punishment in Davao City, was quoted in a recent news article basically saying that he plans to “kill” [all] the rice smugglers.
“Papatayin ko talaga kayo, hindi ako nagbibiro,” he said without apology. No mincing of words there.
Mayor Duterte also brazenly adds that he is willing to go to prison for killing rice smugglers – a supreme sacrifice on his part to be made in the name of meting out justice for the local rice farmers.
This sounds like his personal take on that powerful Ninoy Aquino quote: that the Filipino is worth dying for. For Mayor Duterte, it seems that the Filipino is worth killing for.
Many Davaoeños see Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as the man with the cojones to get the job done. Some even want him to run for president.
In a country where the fight against corruption seems like an insurmountable task, many Filipinos – including non-Davaoeños – have begun to embrace and endorse the leadership style of this man, notwithstanding the extrajudicial methods he openly endorses.
Those who’ve heard of him are aware that he definitely has a reputation. “Time Magazine” tagged him as “The Punisher,” and many Davaoeños attribute the peace and order they enjoy to him, while acknowledging that he has never had any qualms about taking the law into his own hands.
Mayor Duterte appears to concur, as he openly promotes a self-concept that defines him as THE raison d’être for Davao’s current, crime-free state. He is after all, as the magazine mentioned: mayor, legislator, judge, jury and, possibly executioner, all rolled into one.
The concept of “executioner” dates back to medieval times, where a judge would issue a warrant to carry out the arrest of a person, and the executioner to carry out the sentence of death or torture. This protected the executioner from being accused of murder.
In our own culture, we use the term berdugo, which also means hangman or headsman. A berdugo has been typically depicted as a big, hooded, brawny man carrying a scythe or an axe, the prescribed tool for chopping off someone’s head, limbs, and possibly other body parts. He was also tasked with torturing and administering non-lethal ways of punishment. The hood was apparently meant to protect the executioner from being identified and, later on, ostracized by society as a result of the gruesome nature of his job.
In the Ottoman Empire, the job of executioner was usually given to gypsies. Back then, they were a highly marginalized ethnic group in Europe. It was seen as a job for the “damned” and could only be given to those deemed unworthy to live in mainstream society.
“Memories Of Silk And Straw” by Jun’ichi Saga tells the story of a Japanese executioner and his family who suffered from social exclusion. Hangmen, or executioners, were shunned and rejected by the community. This is also seen in the many films and novels about life in Western Europe during the 16th and 17th century.
Perhaps state executioners were treated as such because no one had any sympathy for those whose jobs were to perform brutal and inhuman acts. Back then, when the public was allowed to witness the killing of “criminals,” the violence and cold blooded nature inherent in the act could not be extricated from how the person carrying out the sentence was perceived – even if they were only doing their jobs, and those with the authority and direction of the state.
What does all that have to do with an elected mayor who advocates extrajudicial execution? Really it is, plain and simple, a euphemism for murder. His pronouncements imply that he does not need a warrant to kill. He will commit murder for his version of “love of country” and it seems he’s adored and revered for it.
Reactions to his latest tirade against the rice smugglers have pegged him as a worthy candidate for the highest position in the land.
It might be a good idea for those who venerate and hold Mayor Duterte in high esteem, to realize that they’re witnessing the rhetoric of a man, not the actual cold-blooded act of killing that he promises.
While his sizzling words stoke the flames of frustration and dissatisfaction the people have with the Philippine justice system and its current state, it would be interesting to know if these sentiments and perceptions would still be the same if this gun-toting mayor’s admirers ever saw him in the act of slaying another person. That person would of course, as anyone can imagine, be pleading and begging for his life. — KDM, GMA News
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