There’s a man going around taking names but everyone is not treated the same way! If you are a criminal in Davao City, you are on very dangerous ground! I remember when colorful mayor Rody Duterte was first elected as Mayor of Davao City way back in 1988 and yes, I was in the Philippines at that time. Word has it that Mayor Duterte held a press conference the day he was sworn in as Mayor of Davao City and he told the criminals to leave his city immediately! The Honorable Mayor declared war on criminals! Some scoffed at the Mayor because up until then, the criminals ruled the streets of Davao. However, criminals started turning up dead left and right! Death conquered the streets of Davao and it wasn’t the criminals doing the killing! The criminals were being killed! But hey, they were warned in advance. If you continue to play with fire, you are going to get burned and burnt!
DDS Was Born!
Davao Death Squad became active in Davao and they conquered the streets! Up until The Honorable Mayor was elected, even school children were being robbed of their jeepney and lunch money by street gangs. People were afraid to go out at night but crime happened in broad open daylight! Women were raped, drug lords and their soldiers openly sold drugs on the streets and murder was a sport to some heinous animals! Two legged animals! The citizenry of Davao were sick and tired of being afraid, so they took the bull by the horns and put a stop to crime. Vigilantes? Yep, that is what some call them but the streets of Davao are safe! What about where you live?
One reason that Manila and Cebu has such a terrible crime problem is because many of the criminals relocated there from Davao City! Business and tourism is booming in Davao City because it is one of the safest large cities in all of Asia! Singapore comes to mind about another location in Asia, which was tamed by another hard-nose, no nonsense leader. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. I recall that Lee Kuan Yew was once interviewed by a New York Times reporter during one of his visits to the USA. The reporter brought up about Human Rights violations of criminals in Singapore. Without missing a beat, the Prime Minister asked the reporter if the streets of New York were safe for women at night? The reporter did not answer but the Prime Minister answered for him. Of course not but Singapore is safe 24/7 because criminals are dealt with harshly and they are afraid to commit crimes!
Corrupt policemen, who protected criminals, were also treated like criminals in Davao City. They were eliminated. No slap on the wrist for them, as they had no business being in law enforcement when they were also criminals! Sound fair enough?
Honorable Mayor Rody Duterte is a 5 term mayor and a 1 term vice mayor of Davao City. Due to term limits, he was also elected Congressman of the 1st District of Davao in 1998. Mayor Duturete is currently the Mayor of Davao City.
Human Rights Violations?
When was the last time you heard a Human Rights Organization official stand up and point their fingers at criminals for violating the human rights of victims that they rob, assault & batter, rape, kidnap, molest and murder? I agree that two wrongs do not add up to one right, however, sometimes, something has to be done quickly and harshly to deter certain behaviors! Legally, self defense is the right to protect yourself with whatever force is necessary against violence or threatened violence! Sweeping the streets clean of criminals is getting rid of the threat of violence. If you wake up from sleep and discover that an intruder is climbing over your compound gate in the midnight hour, you can rest assured they are not coming there to pay you a social call! Right?
Please do not misunderstand me! I was taught from a very young age by my Christian mother that taking the life of another human being is something that you never do unless it is indeed to protect your own life or the life of others from imminent violence, which could lead to death. Deadly force is the last resort but some criminals push it to that limit! Kill or be killed! Who is it going to be, you or them? Turn the other cheek and close your eyes, hoping for the best? Not in my book!
There is a reason why there is an old saying from very long ago, “Those who live by the sword shall also die by the sword!
To me, this is called justice, plain and simple. If one commits crime they need to know that there is a price for doing so and not a “slap on the wrist”. I feel no sorrow who commit atrocities against their fellow man.
Mayor Duterte is my man. He must have enjoyed the movie “DEATHWISH” with Charles Bronson. I have been in Davao many times, because my wife is a Davao Lady. Long live Mayor Duterte and the good City of Davao.
Nice comments, Ben! The Philippines need more leaders on all levels like Mayor Rody Duterte.
Have a great day!
Gary
Those who may themselves feeling uncomfortable with the popular mayor’s vigilante-style crime prevention methods should focus on what Gary didn’t fail to mention above: that rogue policemen who mastermind any crimes or cuddle lawbreakers will receive the same treatment.
Sorry, Mel, but I wouldn’t bet my wig on your horse: that rogue law enforcers would get their comeuppance. Those licensed vigilantes, trigger-happy that they are, will become both judge and jury. If I were an ordinary citizen going about my daily innocent business there, a slight offense, a glance, a wrong word enough to offend a death squad militiaman might get me terminated. I rue the day that the barrel of his gun would be pointed at an expat one day for any imagined little slight.
Irrational misplaced sentiment. Who here really believes that people with licenses to commit murder is a good thing, or that only the bad guys die whenever they decide to take a life?
Renato, you’re absolutely right! No one can ever guarantee that only the bad guys would be at the receiving end of the death squad killers’ terrifying guns. Even if safeguards are put in place to make sure that the mayor’s licensed vigilantes would make ONLY the bad guys to disappear (it reminds me of those poor and hapless “disaparecidos” of Guatemala, Venezuela, and Argentina), it would still be wrong, primitive, and barbaric to summarily kill them, or anyone for that matter, outside the legal system.
I have always been glad that the Philippines, the country I happily retired to, has almost the same constitutional guarantees and bill of rights that the US clings to. Siyempre naman, I’d be happier if they are observed and made sacrosanct by all law enforcers, political leaders, and the court system.
I really don’t see myself retiring to the Philippines and then hiding in fear within the high walls of a gated community. If thugs and criminals would prevent me from enjoying the company of fellow expats in our usual urban haunts, or deter me from walking confidently in the busy streets of my Retirement Paradise, then I’d rather have a vigilante public official watching my back rather than an ineffectual politician brandishing a copy of the Philippine Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
Expats have been wooed by the government to come to these shores so that they and the locals can mutually benefit each other. It wouldn’t be too much to expect that the same government should strive to protect their well-being. No wonder many of my friends have been looking at Davao City as a safe and convenient place to retire to.
I hear ya, Ron. Davao had problems that Bacolod City never had and still doesn’t have. There is not a threat to expats in Bacolod City, as long as they do not put themselves in harms way by irrational or irresponsible behavior. If you flash money anywhere in the world, it is an advertisement for criminals to take it from you! And they know how to do it.
Yes, there are criminals in Bacolod City but violent crime is not a serious threat to even Filipinos. Riding on the jeepneys is safe in Bacolod, unlike in Manila, the taxi drivers are not going to drive you out of the way to be robbed by his buddies and criminals are not running wild in the streets here.
Law and Order, together with Public Safety, have long been on the agenda of the leaders of Bacolod City. Not only that but most of the people in Negros Occidental are Negrense and some refer to them as Ilonggo people. Their attitude, character and demeanor is one of friendliness, hospitality and helpfulness, so violence is just not ordinarily part of their nature, unless severely provoked! Or by placing them or their family in danger.
Gary
This is a touchy, controversial, and polarizing subject. I just think that expats here, there, and everywhere should never feel entitled to live in any country expecting that their safety and well-being should be valued more than the lives of innocent people caught in the crossfire, and more than the lives of those murdered by any death squad vigilante killers due to unfounded suspicions or personal grudges.
We’re fallible human beings, and so extrajudicial vigilantes will never be sure that they’re weeding out real criminals. Expats usually wish that the country they have retired to should be civilized, never barbaric, and should respect human life and such concepts like justice, fairness, presumption of innocence — well, those basic human rights any civilized nation embraces. What they are not entitled to is a selfish expectation that peace and order, which expats would naturally value as essential to their happiness, should be purchased at a very high price: that of running roughshod over those civilized principles.
Gary,
I have lived on the northern edge of Bacolod City for 15 years. I think we read different newspapers if you have the opinion that violent behavior is contrary to the Bacoleno/Negrense mindset. Observation, however, presents an interesting dichotomy.
Despite the fact that there is a lot of crime against persons in Bacolod City, a lenient viewpoint toward robbery at knife point, cell phone/purse snatching, pick pocketing, burgulary and car break-ins might place those in the non-violent category when nobody bleeds as a result.
The dichotomy becomes apparent, however, when noticing that the majority of the numerous violent crimes seem to be committed by people who are not criminals until the day they hack/stab/shoot their drinking partners; lovers, employers, brothers, uncles, what have you, until death does them part. Incestual rape cases seem not too uncommon. The Visayan Daily Star offers ample proof of all the above.
Crime against foreigners is marginally low in Bacolod City, not because this area is especially well-policed, but as a result of the fact that Metro Bacolod has but one small, sleepy gringo-gulch (Goldenfields), where foreigners may be corralled for fun, frolic and mayhem.
XPat,
I know many expats who live in Bacolod City year round and with the exception of only one, none of them hang out in Goldenfield, where many of the girlie bars are. According to our two taxi drivers, Koreans are the larger segment of the city who frequent Goldenfield. How many of them actually live in Bacolod or are only here to have fun?
My expat friends and I go where we like in the city and none of us hang out in Goldenfield. I fully realized that for anyone to say they have lived anywhere for any amount of time and they were never crime victims does not mean it could never happen!
I’ve only actually known one expat to be murdered and he got involved in things he knew better to avoid, since he had lived in the Philippines for many years. The mastermind behind the murder of many expats in the Philippines was their partner, whether their wife, girlfriend, live-in or whatever. The mastermind behind the murder of many other expats was one of their domestic helpers.
Yes, there are criminals in Bacolod and in Negros Occidental. I have posted that fact many times over the years. However, how many of those people who commit crimes here have actually lived in Negros Occidental all their lives? Are they really native to the island?
Where we live, the homicides I am aware of were domestic in nature, an act of revenge or either business or politically motivated. People in Bacolod are not getting gunned down in the streets, as it is a rare occasion.
I do not receive *reliable* information from only reading newspapers but rather from locals who know what is happening here,including several PNP officers, who are family and friends. I have spent quality time in the Philippines since 1986, living here full time since 2009, so I have many areas of the Philippines to compare what life is like there and here in the Bacolod Area.
Gary
Gary,
Though it seems improbable that most criminals in Negros Occidental are migrants from some where else, I don’t have the data or inclination to disagree with the implication that such may be the case.
This response is really to note our agreement that most “wet” crimes in the Bacolod City area, may be characterized as crimes of passion. Also, you seem to have missed my point when I wrote that the low rate of crimes against foreigners in Bacolod City is due to the relatively minuscule size of its one and only foreigner-centric red light district.
Well of course if the police will not or cannot take action against crime the people will eventually be fed up and take action. Vigilante action against criminals is wrong, but when push comes to shove something must be done. Who is to say that these heinous criminals have special rights? If they commit the crime then let them be punished–if not by the police, then by an organized citizen’s group for the well-being of society. When criminals fear reprisal for their reign of terror, crime stops or drops in degree. In the U.S. the states with the least home invasion burglaries are the ones which allow good citizens to have guns. Robbery is less appealing if the crook thinks he might leave that house in a body bag. So hooray for Presudent Duterte for stepping in and taking out the garbage–something others should have been doing.