Fighting impunity | Inquirer Opinion

Fighting impunity | Inquirer Opinion

"x x x.

That brought me again to wonder what’s so wrong with us that other countries are able to work their way from the bottom to the top while we’re able only to work our way from the top to the bottom. Clearly it has nothing to do with our genes because when we go abroad, we succeed swimmingly at what we do. Just as clearly it has nothing to do with our stars since we are not cursed, we become underlings only because we seem to have a talent for messing up things.

A reasonable answer to all this is that it’s our system. Other countries have discipline, we don’t. Other countries have rules, we don’t. Other countries obey the rules, we don’t. Other countries have order, we have chaos. Other countries have pride, we have shamelessness. Other countries have a culture of propriety, we have a culture of impunity.

x x x.

That brings me to the second thought I had in mind. That is an appreciation for what P-Noy is doing for the country by prosecuting Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He is pushing back our culture of impunity.

I disagree completely and violently with those who say P-Noy is wasting time and resources by making putting Arroyo behind bars his number one priority. Not at all. I can’t see anything more important, more compelling, more urgent. It spells life and death for the country. It holds the key to the future of this country.

We have always associated the culture of impunity with the ease with which murderers ply their trade in this country. There’s that too, of course. The Maguindanao massacre in particular brought impunity to unimaginable heights, or gave new and entirely horrific meanings to it. The utter barbarity of it, wrought without pity, without compunction, and without fear of punishment made even impunity seem like a euphemism. It’s by far the goriest thing to have happened to us. Enough to have shocked the world. Enough to have stoked furious condemnation from the world.

But I have always thought the culture of impunity meant much more than that, or ought to mean much more than that. I have always thought it was the best way to describe not just the breathtaking ease with which people could commit murder in this country but the breathtaking ease with which people could commit any kind of crime in this country. I have always thought it was the best way to describe not just the mind-boggling blitheness with which people could ignore the preciousness of human life but the mind-boggling blitheness with which people could sweep aside every stricture of right and wrong, every command of instinct and conscience, every law of heaven and earth.

x x x."