The resurgence of vigilantism in the country today could lead to unprecedented upheaval and anarchy. To kill anyone based on speculative evidence of drug involvement could lead us back into the sad days of Pogrom in pre-World War II Europe or the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina of the early 1990s. Labeling all these killings as drug-related crimes could embolden vigilante groups to carry out their killing spree which will eventually tarnish the government’s legitimate operation against drug syndicates.
Drug addiction cannot be terminated by killing people. If it is government’s policy to slaughter drug addicts, we are disturbingly tolerating the emergence of anarchic society where the role of guns makes a mockery on the laws of the land. These small-time drug dependents are certainly in a state of panic now because in the present war on drugs, getting a rehab is no longer viable for them to get deliverance from substance addiction. Death by summary execution and extrajudicial killing are now the prevalent trends of serving justice in the streets. It would be much better in the my grandfather’s days if ever they chose to engage in a hand to hand combat with a Japanese Imperial soldier than in today’s cowardice and treacherous kind of killings.
In the past, vigilante groups had emerged in the early wagon- days of America. An example of their Vigilante Oath reads like this:
“We, the undersigned, uniting ourselves in a party for the purpose of arresting thieves and murderers, and recovering stolen property, do pledge ourselves upon our sacred honor, each to all others, and solemnly swear that we will reveal no secrets, violate no laws of right, and not desert each other or our standard of justice. So help me God, as witness our hands and seals this 23 rd day of December, 1863.”
This government’s campaign against illegal drugs must not become a mayhem that results into the deprivation of citizen’s rights to refute and defend themselves from public accusations leveled against them without proper charges filed in a court of law. It remains fortunate for those ranking officials who were named in public as protectors of drug syndicates as compared to those ordinary drug users who met their fate in the hands of our newly-charged police officers and also from allege vigilante groups. The police officers tagged as members of drug syndicates are still lucky enough because they are given chance to prove their innocence. Unlike those unfortunate nameless drug addicts who possessed few grams of this crystal meth, their enshrined rights to answer accusations by means of judicial proceedings have been logically removed. They all gone to kingdom come, maybe somewhere there in the judgment seat, they could be acquitted or indicted before our unseen Judge.
After this 6-month campaign against illegal drug syndicates, will the population of this country decimates unimaginably? Will a police state brings lasting effect into this country? Having a socialist leader as he consistently claimed to be, will it be good for this country? After six months, answers to these questions shall emerge.
How about the church? What is the role of the church in today’s worrisome endless bloodbaths that are taking place all over the country? Will the church remain nonchalant against the rampant killings of these so-called drug addicts? Is it enough for pastors to continually preach at the pulpit the same litanies about holiness, about giving money to church, about building God’s kingdom on earth, every Sunday? This is the best time for believers of Christ to offer their lives for these trembling and hopeless drug addicts lurking all over the country nowadays. This is high time for the power Christ’s love to be exercised in the lives of those who profess to be true followers of the risen Christ and share this unconditional love to these outcasts’ drug personalities. The bullet can only kill the body, but it has no power to kill the spirit as many hard line communists always taught. The Church must adopt the same motto if they truly believe on their role as agents of change in this dying world.