Kill culture

All the horrific stories coming out of the congressional investigations point to two basic and intractable problems in our country: disregard for human life, and corruption.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Both are difficult to address through legislation, the first even more so.

The culture of violence in our law enforcement and security agencies, and even in the civilian government, is planted early – at the Philippine Military and Philippine National Police Academies, which produce the officer corps in the two organizations, and in school fraternities that count politicians and members of the judiciary among their members.

Blind loyalty and obedience to authority, even when the order is unlawful and inhumane, are also inculcated early in the PMA, PNPA and the fraternities. That recent statement of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, a PMAyer and Duterte’s first PNP chief, says a lot about the state of our nation: “My loyalty to president Duterte is forever and ever!”

Even girls are not spared from the culture of violence. Sororities even in top medical schools also engage in violent and humiliating initiation rites, including beatings and pouring of hot candle drippings on thighs (where burn scars, like bruises from paddle beating, can be hidden from parents).

When youths enter adulthood believing that humans are intrinsically evil, they bear the psychological scars for life, and it is reflected in society.

It has to be among the reasons why our country has one of the highest homicide rates in this part of the planet.

Aggravated by corruption and the weakness of the criminal justice system, the abuses committed in the name of fighting crime are not surprising. And the abuses could happen again, depending on the political leadership.

As for corruption, we already have enough tough laws against a wide range of offenses, from petty graft to large-scale plunder. But how can the laws be enforced properly when the justice system itself is hopelessly corrupted, and the big fish get away?