Rape, murder are not good behavior

  Tonyo Cruz         By Tonyo Cruz I could still remember where I was when news reached us about Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez: We were bantering at the back of the YMCA Dorm, enjoying a breather from the first few weeks of our freshman year at UPLB. The news sent shockwaves across the closely-knit UPLB community. The shock quickly transformed into righteous indignation. Just imagine the concern of our families then when news exploded that a crime had been committed in UPLB. Parental instincts of course immediately kicked in, and they asked not to horse around in between class and to go back to our dorm rooms before it was dark. Check newspaper archives about 1992 and 1993, and the incidents surrounding the multiple rape and double murder would look and sound familiar. A new president, Fidel Ramos, was talking tough about crime, to the point of appointing an anti-crime czar by the name of Joseph Estrada. The death penalty had been reimposed. And soon after the dastardly crimes against Eileen and Allan, the authorities were suspiciously pointing at what was obviously a fall guy, backed by a concocted story of a love triangle gone bad. The UPLB community demanded a swift, impartial, and credible investigation. Our chancellor then sadly had other ideas like imposing a “no ID, no entry” policy, which mayors and policemen could easily skirt, what with their abusive ways. Angrier protests erupted as soon as the chancellor announced his policy response. I remember students hanging a big phony ID bearing the chancellor’s name and face around the UPLB Oblation’s neck. The chancellor soon took back his order. The rape and murder incident agitated and united the University Student Council, Council of Student Leaders, student organizations and those of the faculty and REPS in discussions and mass actions. We would later find ourselves hiring jeeps in order to bring hundreds of students to the DOJ and the court. We in the UPLB Perspective faithfully covered the search for justice, and the community protests. Credit for the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of Mayor Antonio Sanchez and his minions goes to the families of Eileen and Allan who pressed on with the fight for justice, the UPLB community, the student movement, an independent-minded fiscal, and a judge who dispensed justice. We didn’t expect a conviction, considering how crooked the country’s system of justice was/is. The prime suspect was a mayor, together with policemen as cohorts. The mayor got a loudmouth, flashy lawyer who apparently directed him to pose as a religious man incapable of the crimes committed. And no less than the so-called anti-crime czar had tried to pin blame on another person. 26 years later, another president rules the country with an iron fist. Crimes, especially those committed by the powerful, continue unabated. And in a fantastic show of double-standards, the former chief of police who called for the killing of drug suspects has favored the release of Mayor Sanchez on account of his alleged “good behavior.” What’s good behavior in multiple rape and double murder? Nothing. Rape and murder are not good behavior. Hiding shabu in an image of the Virgin Mary is not good behavior. Obtaining special treatment in jail is not good behavior. Neither is supporting the early, undeserved release of a rape and murder/convict. For a chief of police who prides himself on being tough on crime and on calling for the killing of drug suspects, Bato’s position shows a disturbing state of mind. Raoul Manuel, the president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, was thus correct when he questioned Bato about it in the Senate. A senator who favors the release of an unrepentant rapist and murderer surely is not with a state of mind that prioritizes safety and security of students. It is a state of mind that prioritizes rapists and murderers, and doesn’t care about victims and their families. We must also point out: The election of a general as president, the appointment of an anti-crime czar, and the reimposition of the death penalty at the time didn’t scare Sanchez and his cohorts from doing what they did to Eileen and Allan. We must not allow Bato to transform the dastardly crimes into an argument for the reimposition of the death penalty. He cannot pretend to want to put the noose around Sanchez’s neck when he favors his early release in the first place. Bato argues that there would have been no request for early release had the death penalty been imposed on Sanchez. But he doesn’t say that had the supercops had their way at that time, an innocent man would’ve been executed, and Sanchez would’ve gone scot-free. And among those who “gifted” Eileen to Sanchez, and who also molested Eileen soon after were cops. Bato thus totally deserves the universal and stinging public rebuke he is reaping over his call for Sanchez’s early release. And it makes all his senatorial initiatives suspect. It shows his disturbing state of mind and his conception of history and current reality. Those who have loudly and lustily called for the execution of drug suspects are silent right now. They are the real hypocrites in my book. They’re not really after our safety and security. They are only after the safety and security of their political idols who merely pose as crime busters. The freshmen of 1993 are all grown up now, way past adulting. Many already have families, and have kids in college. We do not want a convicted rapist and murderer to be put back in the streets. Our efforts, and those of Eileen’s and Allan’s, cannot be in vain. That man and his minions deserve to rot in jail, and if any senator thinks otherwise, he could join him there. The generation that helped convict a mayor for rape and murder, and also later helped oust and convict a mayor/president for plunder, is awake again. The new mayor/president and his chief of police should not underestimate.