#StopTheKillingsPH is not just a Duterte issue

Former chief executive Rodrigo Duterte has already concluded his bloody rule, but the killings have not stopped.

During the first 29 days of Ferdinand Marcos Jr in Malacañang, more than 30 killings have already happened. The latest murder was that of Rolando Yumol, the father of physician Chao Tiao Yumol, himself a cold-blooded murderer of three people in Ateneo de Manila University one day before his first State of the Nation Address. One day after Marcos Jr’s SONA, the Philippine military slaughtered four people in separate incidents of killings in Negros Oriental and Batangas. Scores of people were also gunned down under his “calibrated” continuation of Duterte’s drug war.

The scale and brazenness with which these killings have happened is alarming, even though it isn’t really a big surprise. This is a worrisome perpetuation of Duterte’s most notorious legacy in his six years as president: the spate of killings in this country.

One word comes to mind, in the face of these killings in broad daylight: impunity. The culture of impunity which Duterte emboldened — and which fueled his “wars” against drugs, insurgency, and terrorism — is still kicking under the late dictator’s son. This isn’t new considering the Marcos legacy of killings during the twenty-year dictatorship of Marcos Jr’s father, but this is nonetheless outrageous.

The apex of the Yumol narrative is that the killer himself is a rabid far-right Marcos-Duterte fanatic. His belief that the law could be taken upon someone’s hands, that killings could resolve his otherwise justified issues of narcopolitics and corruption against the Furigay dynasty in Basilan, pushed him to actually pull the trigger and murder three people, including the defenseless Ateneo security guard Jevelen Bandalia. His murder spree has opened a Pandora’s box of violence, which now claimed his own father’s life. Who’s next?

Where could we turn to? The supposed guardians of the people are themselves the architects of this culture of impunity. The new president could not even acknowledge the vortex of killings under his predecessor and his dictator-father. Vigilantism and extrajudicial killings are not solely a Marcos or Duterte creation, but these two surnames certainly emboldened a plethora of murderers to perpetuate this cycle of violence with an unbridled amount of impunity. Their legion of fanatics could not be bothered to condemn these killings, especially since they were the same people who cheered on Yumol when he murdered former Lamitan, Basilan mayor Rose Furigay and two other innocent civilians.

#StopTheKillingsPH is not just an issue confined within Dutertismo’s era. It should not be.

Not when Duterte’s biggest legacy — the culture of lawlessness and impunity with which these killings were (and are still being) carried out — still pushes Filipinos like Yumol, his father’s killers, and Philippine state forces to murder without conscience.

Killings are our real State of the Nation. And it is not sound at all, Mr. Marcos.