An end to “mere rhetoric” and fear of God could put an end to the “worsening culture of impunity and injustice” that has victimized the country’s civilian population, House Deputy Speaker and CIBAC partylist Rep. Eddie Villanueva said Tuesday as he condemned the twin killings in Paniqui, Tarlac last Sunday.
This developed as ACT-CIS partylist Rep. Nina Taduran called on the Philippine National Police to conduct a regular behavioral evaluation of all its members especially those who have pending cases like Police Senior Master Sgt. Joenel Nuezca.
Taduran believes that the investigation of cases of erring policemen shouldn’t stop at the office of the Internal Affairs Service of the PNP. She said that there should be cross-checking to know if the case has been properly evaluated and investigated.
A popular evangelist, Villanueva said the murders of an unarmed mother and son is a “glaring picture of the State where the worsening culture of impunity and injustice in the country has already brought us.”
“The brazen and senseless shooting of a mother and son by a policeman in Tarlac must be a sudden prick to our consciousness which might have become accustomed to incidences of killings in the country. It should be a stern warning that justice must be served for every fall of life – particularly if brutal cold-blooded killing,” said Villanueva in a statement.
He added: Or else, we make the culture of impunity larger each day that we let injustice get away.”
The neophyte solon noted that the Paniqui murders followed a number of brutal killings in the country.
“The Laguna mayor slain inside the municipal hall, the Manila judge shot dead by a clerk inside a court’s chamber, the killing of a journalist by gunmen in motorcycle in Pangasinan, a lawyer shot dead in Cebu, the daily deaths made pursuit to the war against drugs – just to name a few – have all made it to the headlines indicating a dissipating regard for the value of human life,” Villanueva said.
According to him, making sure that justice is served lies now on the government’s shoulders.
“In the face of this erosion of morality if not sanity, mere rhetoric and less-than-what-is-needed actions are only a waste of effort and time. Worse, it only makes perpetrators of crimes more callous and undeterred.”
“As long as there is no fear of God on the part of law enforcers, there can never be good governance for Fear of GOD is the beginning of Wisdom! (Proverbs 9:10),” the congressman-evangelist stated.
Taduran urged the PNP leadership to regularly conduct psychiatric evaluation of police officers who have faced charges of grave misconduct and graver crimes but were cleared.
“Notwithstanding the dismissal of the case, a police officer charged with grave misconduct should not be immediately readmitted to active duty status until after a thorough review of his record and upon undergoing psychiatric evaluation," Taduran said.
She noted that before killing the Tarlac victims, Nuezca had faced numerous criminal and administrative charges.