“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well. –Helen Prejean
It is mind-bobbling to hear Police Superintendent Santiago Ylanan Rapiz, a trained and quick-witted police official assigned to the Zamboanga del Norte Police Provincial Office, would exchange fire with fellow officers intending to arrest him last week during a buy-bust in Dipolog City.
The officer was killed in front of the Andres Bonifacio College gymnasium.
Even rookie cops know chances of survival are nil if they choose to open fire once cornered or overpowered.
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When lawyers are murdered and their killers get away, justice bleeds – if justice is denied, democracy wobbles. Continuing injustice, including deadly attacks on unarmed civilians and officers of the court, along with unsolved cases, mean an imminent collapse of democracy. If democracy is dead then lawlessness, abuse of power, and authoritarian rule reign.
If a crusading lawyer like Benjamin Tarug Ramos, Jr. can be violently silenced with no justice in return, what chances do ordinary laborers, farm workers, and the poor have if faced with similar circumstances? As a defender of the oppressed and voiceless, the state must ensure protection for people vulnerable to brutal attack, such as the late National Union of the People’s Lawyers-Negros (NUPL-Negros) official.
With Ramos dead, government must utilize all resources to hunt down the killers.
The incident has caused a chilling effect beyond his colleagues in Negros, but members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
The 56-year-old was gunned down by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Barangay Biniculi, Kabankalan City as he was bringing home paperwork for pro bono clients. The NUPL-Negros official suffered three gunshot wounds towards the back and upper chest, and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
According to NUPL, “[He was] maliciously and irresponsibly tagged in a public poster by the Philippine police as among the so-called personalities of the underground armed movement.” They also noted, Ramos was the 34th legal professional killed during the President Rodrigo Duterte administration; excluding judges and prosecutors, he was 24th member attorney killed – eighth in the Visayas.
Violence is not the answer if some powerful entity is annoyed by crusading lawyers; the use of force and treachery is the handiwork of cowards and psychos – the best description of both killers and the masterminds behind Ramos’ murder.
This recent wave of lawlessness, which is snuffing out the lives of brave lawyers, should be condemned not because Ramos was a lawyer but because murder is a crime.
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I have declared several times before there will be no construction on the Negros-Guimaras-Panay bridges this year. As long as the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other pertinent government agencies are in charge, the project will never get off the ground.
Only technical people, experts, and non-political personalities, especially in business, private, and diplomatic sectors, have credibility when it comes to delivering on high-level infrastructure projects like airports, domes, damns, highways, and bridges.
Politicians have zero credibility when it comes to implementation of mammoth projects./WDJ