Security Philippines Style

Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence.

– A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Indian scientist

“I want to fire a gun,” says Hairy Lynn, Elsa's youngest daughter. I've just asked her why she wants to be a security guard. She takes aim and fires an imaginary gun, blows smoke from the barrel, then twirls and holsters it. My pacifist leanings give me pause for concern. However, I agree to loan her money so she can take the training and get a license. Not a career I would choose for her, but at least, working as a guard brings job security.

You see them at the entrances of all the malls and most other public and private facilities – armed security guards dressed in police uniforms replete with badges, handcuffs, and batons, patting down customers, checking their bags and running people through x-ray machines. The four story department store at Gaisano Mall has entrances on each floor and a couple of security guards stand at each of these entrances. They check your baggage both entering and exiting the stores. Goods purchased at one store cannot be brought into another store, but must be checked in at a baggage counter. 

What's happening here? Too many instances of shoplifting? Over-vigilant attitudes left over from the Marcos martial law period? A concern about terrorism? It is true that the U.S. State Department regularly lists a travel advisory of “extreme caution” when traveling to the island of Mindanao where we live.

“Separatist and terrorist groups across Mindanao continued their violent activities, conducting bombings and kidnappings, attacking civilians and political leaders, and battling Philippine security forces,” according to the advisory. 

 Some say the warnings are an excuse for the U.S. government to keep its foot in the door after the closing of its Philippines military bases. Some 6,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Mindanao, an intervention resented by many.

There are armed battles between the army and Muslim separatists but these occur several hours to the West of us and the numbers involved are very small. The Philippines Army does battle with the rebel National Peoples Army, but these skirmishes occur largely in the surrounding mountains, not in towns or cities. And civilians rarely, if ever, are involved in these actions.

Our everyday life seems untouched by these concerns. Still, there are occasional reminders that the threat of violence lies behind this mask of quietude. 

One evening, Pare Udong has just finished fixing the toilet in our bathroom and is in the courtyard talking to Elsa when there's a rapid fire pop pop pop and a burst of fire in the sky. Udong and Elsa make a dash for the bushes and hide behind them. They're afraid the Army is engaging the New People's Army in a pitched battle. But it's only the fireworks display from the opening ceremonies of the Batang Pinoy Games at the sports complex down the road.

Checkpoint in Lanao, Mindanao. Image: Mindanews, September 15 2011

Another day, we take a bus to the Bureau of Immigration in Davao; we need to update my visa. Just outside the city, we approach a barricade and armed soldiers motion us over. The bus pulls to the side of the road and all the male passengers exit to a waiting shed while a soldier climbs on board and checks the bus. He's looking for bombs. I'm not sure why they don't ask women or children to exit; maybe they don't think they could be terrorists. Every time we travel to Davao, we go through the same routine. Overkill, I think until one day, I read in the paper that ten people were killed and 30 injured in a bus bombing in Bukidnon, a province a couple of hours north of Davao.

Still, this seems to be an isolated instance, and these violent instances seem small compared to the large number of extrajudicial killings that occur in the area. In Davao and Tagum City, there have been over a thousand instances of thugs driving by on motorcycles, pulling out pistols and shooting unarmed civilians. You might compare them to the drive by shootings that occur in gang ridden areas of the U.S.A. The difference? These drive-by's are not so random; they are sanctioned by, and some would say, ordered by local government officials. Locally, the press refers to the hired killers as members of death squads. The victims of these death squads are suspected criminals, often drug dealers with the occasional innocent civilian killed by mistake – or not. Sometimes the victims are political opponents or journalists. The Philippines has the world's third most killing of journalists. Elsa's brother Manny, a Davao radio commentator, regularly receives death threats.

One day, on our way to Elsa's home in Montevista, we stop at the bus terminal in Nabunturan and take a tricycle up the main road to conduct business at a local bank when a car caravan goes by. I think it's a funeral procession, but there are placards hanging from cars and tricycles proclaiming, “Justice for Claudio” and “Who Killed Claudio?”

“Who is Claudio,” I ask Elsa. She tells me Claudio Martin Larrazabal was a Leyte town Vice Mayor assassinated a few days previously. He was a popular local mayor, she says, adding that she suspects political opponents killed him. In a local newspaper, I read that Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines (VMLP) President Isko Moreno calls the killing election-related. In the article, he reported that 19 vice mayors died because of election-related violence during the May 2013 elections, and that he suspected the killing of Larrazabal could be a preview of more such incidents in the 2016 elections. A month later, four men were arrested and charged with Larrazabal's murder. One of the suspects tells the police that the killing was, indeed, politically motivated. 

Bodies recovered from mass grave following Maguindanao massacre.
Image: file photo, philstar.com, November 22, 2014.

Such incidents are not uncommon. In 2009, 58 members of the Manguadadatu family, lawyers, journalists and other civilians were kidnapped and brutally killed on their way to a political rally in the Maguindanao province of Mindanao where Esmael Mangudadatu, the Vice Mayor of Bulan, planned to announce his candidacy for governor. At least five of the women victims were raped and most of the women had been shot in their genitals and beheaded. The perpetrators attempted to bury the victims in a mass grave but a military helicopter flying overhead discovered them in the act. They escaped, but the evidence pointed toward the involvement of the governor's son, Andal Ampatuan Jr. He was arrested and charged with the murders although never tried. Trials are rare in such cases. At least 34 journalists were killed in the Maguinanao Massacre and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called this affair the single deadliest event for journalists in history.

Despite these horrific incidents, the level of violence in the Philippines is sometimes overstated. The homicide rate here is only slightly higher than the U.S.A. – six per 100,000 versus five per 100,000 in the U.S.A. – much lower than that in many Latin American countries, including Ecuador, the new retirement haven for Americans, which has three times the homicide rate of the Philippines. However, in Southeast Asia, only Indonesia has a higher homicide rate. Japan and Singapore have homicide rates of 0.3 per 100,000; China, Vietnam, and Malaysia all have homicide rates of two per 100,000 or less. And with international drug syndicates increasingly using the Philippines as a transit hub for the illegal drug trade, there is some concern that the level of violence will increase here.

So with some uneasiness, I'm advancing the money to Hairy Lynn, hoping that she was just joking about wanting to fire a gun and that her enthusiasm for her new career doesn't reflect some sort of gunslinger mentality. Maybe she's just been watching too many American westerns. The classic “Frontier Justice” anthology comes to mind.