Zenel P.
Yap III-10 A Position Paper: Dutertes Actions
07/14/11
Last July 2, 2011, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Mayor Sara Duterte of Davao assaulted court sheriff Abe Andres, who was persistent in demolishing houses in Barangay Soliman despite the mayors request to delay the demolition for 2 hours. The sheriff took four punches on the face and was brought to the hospital shortly after by Dutertes body guards. The incident started with the court ordering the demolition of houses last June 23 and informing the people to evacuate the area. The lawyer of the group tried to intervene and tried to file an appeal but he failed to submit on time. The sheriff, following his original orders, continued with the demolition. Out of concern for the people, Mayor Duterte stopped sheriff Andres by physical assault. In my opinion, the mayors actions were unjustifiable regardless of her main intention of doing so. Counterclaims to the issue are intriguing and somehow strong enough to let people side with a justifiable act of Duterte, but even these issues are lacking strength in evidence. Firstly, the intention of the mayor was to protect her people from harm. It was her job to do so. She was angered at the situation because the sheriff was not clearly seeing the bloodshed that will happen if the demolition took place. The inquirer even stated that there was already a policeman hit by a dart on the buttocks on the initial confrontation of the residents and the demolition team. The mayor stated, Do you think the residents will just allow you to demolish their houses without them putting up a fight? They were already warned beforehand about the severity of their actions, but they did not listen. Mayor Duterte literally showed everyone that they should listen first. She only did it to get their attention and had to let sheriff Andres that she is capable of anything. But everything that made the claims valid is only from a superficial point of view. Emotion, concern and strength were nothing compared to papers of agreements as evidence. Even the Mayors response about the situation: I dont care, say goodbye to your budget. You asked me for additional fund? My God, I am having difficulty from the budget. They will cite me for contempt? I will also cite them for contempt. Starting tomorrow, no more gasoline for them, no allowance, and no job order! was improper and unprofessional. Talking is not a hard thing to do. What if she did talk to the sheriff instead of picking a fight? Will the media write more than one article about the issue? I think she should have talked to the leader in front of the people instead of beating him up. With this, the issue would not have talked about and she was not filed for contempt or dismissal. She is also a lawyer. Being an educated person of the field inclined to justice, fighting for it was not only by physical means. She should know better. Even lawyers that watched the videos said What she did was no justifiable, not acceptable what she should have done is take him aside and talk to him. Another obvious mistake was the late filing of the lawyer of the barangay to pose an appeal. He only filed the case on the day that the incident took place. Even Mayor Duterte confessed to this mistake and was only concerned on the late approval. Sheriff Andres was only following orders. The original order from June 23 was still not suspended by the court; he followed what has been arranged weeks before. Talking about ethical or not, the intention was good but the act was immoral, making the whole situation itself as immoral. It was like the Spanish times all over again with revolutions rising and not being an issue to people. But this day and age, people are more concerned with morality and ethical judgment rather than being barbaric. In conclusion, Mayor Dutertes actions were not justifiable in spite of her good intentions and emotions towards the situation. An apology would resolve the dilemma. I hope people from the government would not show this kind of resolution to problems. If this was the case, people not from the government would start to think its part of our society to punch people to get their attention. I think leaders should set a good example to their members, and the members of the group should follow their leaders as a sign of respect.
