'Hadlok'

By Carlos Isagani T. Zarate

IT was a nightmare 15-year-old Ron-ron, a former street child, wished was just a bad dream. But for him and a hundred other kids, the terror they faced in the dawn of May 24 in Malagos, Davao City will forever haunt them the rest of their lives.

"Hadlok kaayo mi, nagkurog mi sa kakuyaw (We were so afraid; we were trembling in fear)." Ron-ron recalls how they were awakened at gunpoint by armed men in full battle gear who barged into the youth camp organized by the Kabataan Consortium, an umbrella organization of several youth-oriented NGOs in Davao City. "I woke up with the barrel of an Armalite facing me."

The raiding armed men had no nameplates; some were in civilian clothes. No warrant was shown either. They herded the youth camp participants -- mostly street children and prostituted girls and boys and a handful of adult facilitators -- into the camp's main hall with their hands behind their backs. With the children closely guarded inside the hall, other members of the raiding team turned upside down the children's tents, in search of guns and ammunition, which were purportedly hidden in the camp, according to military intelligence.

When told by a participant that the week-long psychosocial rehabilitation program includes a briefing on children's rights, a member of the raiding team retorted that the intelligence report must be really correct because the lectures include human rights.

Yet, after several hours of search with no guns or ammunitions found, the only thing the leader of the raiding team could say to the weeping and horrified children is: Sorry, we were mistaken... but, we did this to protect you against the terrorists!

In the aftermath of the raid, nobody would apparently own up to the faux pas. Ranking city and regional police officials denied knowledge or involvement in the raid. The head of the Army's 73rd Infantry Battalion, the nearest military contingent in the area, was also ambiguous in his statements.

More than a week after the incident, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, invoking his authority as chair of the crisis management team appointed by President Macapagal-Arroyo, finally admitted that the Malagos raid was in fact a joint military-police operation with his imprimatur. The justification offered: the raiding team was in a hot pursuit operation against a group of terrorists allegedly transporting arms from the nearby Calinan District toward Malagos. If it was a legitimate operation, then why the initial denials by the military and the police? That it took them more than a week to straighten out their flawed script only betrays the kind of peace and order campaign now being implemented in the city in the aftermath of the so-called "state of lawless violence" now in place in the region.

Granting that it was indeed a legitimate operation, Duterte should not have just glossed over the alleged violations and abuses committed by the Malagos raiding team, and the other warrantless searches and arrests in Moro communities reportedly committed by the "anti-terrorist" military-police contingent of Task Force Davao.

Fortunately, the children, with their parents, have transformed their traumatic experience into courage by filing cases, initially with the Commission on Human Rights. This, despite some insensitive comments and discouragement from some sectors, including the media, not to blow the incident out of proportion.

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Nowadays, the heightened presence of police and military in Davao City and its environs may give one a sense of security, however false. You can see them everywhere: at the malls, church compounds, schools, bus terminal and, even inside McDonald's and Jollibee.

Yet, one of the many questions many Davaoeños ask is: Has Davao City gone back to its old reputation as the country's "killing fields"? It is mind-boggling that with the tight security, violence and terror perpetrated by the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) against suspected drug pushers and other criminals continue unabated in the city. So far, more than 200 killings were attributed to this shadowy group.

Last June 16, in broad daylight, two theft suspects were gunned down by motorcycle-riding men just several meters away from the premises of the police Heinous Crime Investigation Section (HCIS), where, 10 minutes earlier, both were released from detention. One of the victims was accompanied by his wife and two minor children at the time.

"Kit-an man gyud nako nga gipusil sa ulo akong papa. Gipatay nila akong papa (I really saw my father shot in the head. They killed him)," said the 10-year-old boy who, with his sister, was soaked in their father's blood.

After June 16, vigilantes felled more crime suspects, some also newly released from detention. Last month, four other petty crime suspects were also killed while on a passenger jeepney a few meters away from the Sasa Police Station where they were earlier detained.

Lawyer Victorio Advincula, a veteran city councilor, aptly described the situation now pervading in Davao City when he said: "If we go by the law, there is a breakdown of law and order... no one can close his eyes to this kind of incident if it happens time and again."

It appears, though, that at the rate these killings are going on, the police will just tote them all up in their dismal statistic of unsolved (or, is it solved?) crimes.

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