The solution is worse than the problem. This was shown in the recent case of Genesis Argoncillo who was beaten to death by cellmates in a Quezon City jail. Police acting on President Duterte’s order to rid the streets of “tambays” or vagrants started rounding up shirtless men, smoking, drinking or merely standing in front of their house.
Buhay Party-List Rep. Lito Atienza expressed his concern that while he agrees with President Duterte’s campaign to rid the streets of “tambays” to reduce crime, he said throwing them in jail with hardened criminals is not the answer.
“We do not have capital punishment in this country but the case of Tisoy Argoncillo, 22 years old, without any police record or prior arrest, proved that being detained in our congested jails is like being sentenced to death,” said Atienza, a staunch pro-life advocate. Atienza recalled his younger years growing up in Malate. Then-policeman and later Manila police chief James Barbers would merely warn them to stay off the streets when it’s already late at night. He paid tribute to Barbers whom he said acted like a big brother to young men in the Malate neighborhood.
One can imagine if Atienza had been jailed with hardened criminals then. Atienza’s political career would have been nipped in the bud and we would not have seen him rise from National Housing Authority manager, three-term Manila mayor, Environment and Natural Resources secretary and as Buhay Party-List congressman.
He reminded law enforcers of the constitutional and human rights of detainees.
Others who did not suffer Argoncillo’s fate and more recently that of Johnny Valliente who was also found dead in a Manila jail, die from heat stroke or suffer from contagious diseases from other inmates. The Novaliches, Quezon City jail which could only accommodate 15 prisoners at the most is congested and currently holding some 50 inmates. In the National Bureau of Corrections in Muntinlupa and in other detention centers, the horror stories of overcrowded jails are the same.
Whatever happened to the plan to build a large national penitentiary in Nueva Ecija near a military camp? But going back to the government’s latest campaign to round up vagrants, Atienza said vagrants should simply be accosted, warned and not arrested. An estimated 8,000 “tambays” have been arrested and jailed adding to the congestion of detention cells.
President Duterte has clarified his order to police was merely to accost loiterers and idlers on the streets but not to arrest them, adding his action was based on police power to enforce existing ordinances and local laws.
National Capital Region Police Office chief Guillermo Eleazar said the PNP would cooperate with a Senate inquiry into the death of Argoncillo and the government campaign to round up street vagrants.
Party-list representatives and the Public Attorney’s Office are calling on the government to release the detained vagrants to spare them from further harm. Will their calls fall on deaf ears?
Crossing the line
On another issue, Atienza also lamented President Duterte’s recent remark calling God “stupid.” Like other Catholics with firm Christian values, Atienza regretted that the President might have crossed the line. Like Lingayen, Pangasinan Archbishop Villegas, Rep. Atienza asked the faithful to pray for the President’s enlightenment.
With his blasphemous remark, Duterte has taken on God and crossed the line cherished by Catholics as sacrosanct. Realizing he might have indeed gone too far when he drew a lot of flak from the public, Duterte attempted to clarify his statement.
“What I said was your [that of those who commit corruption] god is ‘torpe’ for making us believe that we should carry the burden of the original sin committed by Adam and Eve. My god is perfect and has common sense,” explained Duterte.
But his explanation didn’t wash with most Filipinos 80 percent of whom are Catholics and Christians.
While Archbishop Villegas called on the faithful to pray for the President to change his errant ways, there are some who were aghast his about remark and feared lightning might strike Duterte for his blasphemy. This would be a retribution from the heavens. But then we know that the real God is also a forgiving and not a vengeful God when He said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” They, as anyone who read about the crucifixion of Christ at Mount Calvary know, are the Romans who tortured and nailed Him to the cross.
I am not wishing for thunder and lightning to strike the President but a lesser god or karma could deliver to Digong his comeuppance for such blasphemy and disrespect for religious beliefs sacred to Filipinos.
