Death by injustice

A young, poor boy dreamt of a better future by anchoring his life on faith and education. He was an altar server at a religious mission, and he enrolled in a local government-run college to equip himself with skills. He was his family’s hope for better times. He ended up dead last week, a victim of a society that teems with so many forms of injustice.

It was Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of the Catholic Church who publicly decried and bewailed the death of Dion Angelo dela Rosa. The 20-year-old waded through floodwaters in Malabon City for three days in search of his father, who had suddenly disappeared. After days of searching and walking through flooded streets, Dion found his father handcuffed at the back of a police station after being arrested for playing kara y krus (coin toss), which is considered illegal gambling under a 50-year-old law (Presidential Decree No. 1602) passed under the administration of the incumbent president’s father.

According to Cardinal David, Dion’s father was arrested without a warrant, and despite the latter’s pleas, the police refused to inform his family of his arrest. The cardinal further disclosed that the bail for the father’s temporary liberty was set at P30,000, an “impossible amount” for the impoverished family, leaving Dion to wade through dirty floodwaters every day just to visit his father to bring him food and work on his case.

Due to his exposure to floodwaters, Dion developed fever and body aches. He slept after eating on July 27, but was later found dead by his three-year-old sister. He suffered cardiac arrest that was the result of leptospirosis, a disease caused by rat urine in dirty floodwaters.

Dion’s mother claims her husband did not commit the illegal gambling offense leveled against him. She suspects that her husband could have been a victim of “pangsakto” by the police—an alleged scheme of arrests made on trumped-up charges so the police could meet their quota.

There could be more than a grain of truth in the accusation made by Dion’s mother, which strongly warrants a multipronged investigation into the “pangsakto” scheme. Why on earth would the police busy themselves with a kara y krus infraction when the whole of Metro Manila was drowning in floodwaters? Why in heaven’s name would the police give special attention to kara y krus when the whole country is swamped with so many other forms of gambling?

There’s jueteng, sanitized under the name of “small town lottery” operated by the government itself, with three daily draws that are replete with brazen violations, such as non-issuance of receipts, lack of uniforms, and lack of proper identification of the kubradors, among others. There are open gambling activities at funeral wakes that are overextended in their duration. There are multiple venues for cockfighting in every town. A quick online search even shows the presence of gambling casinos in the outskirts of Metro Manila, including Malabon City. With so many gambling activities for the police to monitor for regulatory violations, why did the police expend time and effort on a kara y krus incident, which is merely gambling in form but sheer entertainment in essence for the poor?

Cardinal David also questions why the police were so minded to arrest someone playing kara y krus when anyone, including minors, can gamble anywhere and anytime online—even with just their mobile phones. “Here lies the painful irony: while the poor are being charged for playing kara y krus, we are powerless against the biggest operator of the gambling business today through online gambling: the government itself, through Pagcor,” he pointed out.

There are also enough reasons to give credence to the allegation that Dion’s father was arrested so the police could burnish their accomplishments with concocted statistics. The arrest of Dion’s father, which was the ultimate cause of Dion’s death, should warrant thorough and multiple investigations by the government, administrative scrutiny by the national police, criminal probe by the justice department, and congressional inquiry by legislators.

This issue of police quota, an abhorrently evil means for police personnel to secure favorable citations and promotion, has constantly reared its ugly head for so long. During the bloody reign of former president Rodrigo Duterte, many police officers reportedly became cold-blooded murderers by concocting “nanlaban” encounters in order to generate more cadavers to be associated with their names, which were the macabre credentials needed for promotion during that violent period of our history.

And then there’s the issue of flooding despite the tens of billions in flood control funds poured yearly into the hands of our legislators. If President Marcos is genuinely serious about identifying the culprits of this yearly torment, his government can simply release the data on flood control funds given per congressperson or senator for the past few years. The people will do the cleansing for him.

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