Former Interior Secretary Rafael M. Alunan III has denounced the murder of bowling star Angelo Nathaniel Constantino in a bowling center in Greenhills, San Juan last Friday.
Alunan decried the murder as “cold-blooded” as he pointed out it was “the latest in the spate of brazen killings that continue to grip the nation.”
Constantino was a bowling coach and a former gold medalist in the 1992 World Youth Championship. He was killed at the second floor of the E-Lanes Bowling Center in Barangay Greenhills at around 5 p.m. on Jan. 11 by a lone gunman wearing a face mask, San Juan police said.
“Public order and safety are breaking down. Criminals do not fear the law and justice system. A culture of impunity has gripped society. Our laws are either obsolete, weak or toothless. Justice is either delayed or denied,” Alunan said.
“Up to now, the justice system is infiltrated by criminals,” added the former Cabinet secretary. “During my time [at the Department of the Interior and Local Government], we began the process of cleaning up the criminal justice system. It should have been continued by succeeding administrations as a matter of vital public policy and in the national interest.”
According to Alunan, the current administration has what it takes to “kick out the criminals amongst the police, prosecutors, judges, and jailers.”
“The campaign against crime, drugs, terror, and corruption cannot be won with the enemies of the people still embedded in the system,” he said.
The Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council should formulate the package of actions that would address this long-standing problem, said Alunan, who was also Tourism Secretary under President Corazon Aquino.
He cited examples that would align Philippine laws and the local justice system with leading nations of the world.
“The laws on criminality and terrorism like the Revised Penal Code and the Human Security Act must be strengthened by maximizing penalties and jail sentences for various crimes,” Alunan said.
“For selected crimes against humanity – murder, drugs, terrorism, plunder, ecological destruction, and human trafficking – we should restore the death penalty,” he added.
Criminal risk reduction, law enforcement, and no-nonsense swift justice “must step up now,” Alunan added. “Peace and order is a prerequisite for development. The lack of it contributes to our divisions resulting in the never-ending cycle of violence and armed insurgencies.”