A Bulacan Regional Trial Court judge was driving home from work November 11 when assassins shot at his vehicle. Judge Wilfredo Nieves died instantly. Police say they are looking into the cases Nieves was handling at the time of his death. There were reports he had been receiving threats to his life prior to his slaying.
On September 1, a trial court judge was also killed in Baler, Aurora. Judge Erwin Alaba was on his way to a hearing when his killer shot him six times. Alaba’s wife, who was with him in the car, was injured: a bullet grazed her arm.
These slayings of members of the Judiciary had been condemned by the Supreme Court, by authorities, by lawyers, and by the general public. Nieves and Alaba were supposed to be part of the group sworn to interpret the law. Their role as judges was to see to it that justice was served.
Their killers and their masterminds, however, had other ideas: make a mockery of justice by silencing those sworn to uphold the law.
This insult rings true when we think back to six years ago. In Ampatuan town in Maguindanao, 58 people—some part of the convoy that was filing a certificate of candidacy at a Comelec office, some media workers covering the event and some who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time—were killed.
Some arrests have been made and a judge had been assigned to hear all cases related to the massacre exclusively. Until now, however, the cases have hardly moved, bogged down by technicalities and obvious attempts at delay. A lawyer estimated that because of the complex nature of the cases, resolution could take at least 25 years—an entire generation.
Already, the prime suspect, the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan, had died of sickness this year. Who else knows what could still happen and how those responsible could elude the consequences of what they have done in the many years that lie ahead?
Every day that the guilty are not made to pay for their crime is a day too long. We seek to at least have appearances of order. There are arrests and incarcerations. There are hearings. Investigations. Manhunts and rewards. In the end, what would stop these acts of impunity is the certainty that when you do something wrong, you will be made accountable for it—swiftly. A weak system where the powerful and the cunning know they get away with their deeds does not inspire confidence in our law enforcers and security in our daily routines.
For this administration, down to its last few months, this is not a priority. It did not create this problem, we can imagine its spokesmen saying. The massacre took place during the previous regime. What it would not admit is the fact that the number of extra judicial killings even rose during President Aquino’s term. It even went so far as playing down the killings or blaming those killed.
With leadership like this, small wonder that impunity has worsened. Criminals have become bolder and fiercer—with a contempt for the law that is matched only by this administration’s insensitivity to the dangers that this impunity brings.