Michel Foucault, the French philosopher’s ideas on the comparison
of the Medieval and Renaissance public execution; Dr. Joseph Guillotine’s
invention of Holy Guillotine that was used by the Catholic priest and
inquistador, the quicker and less painful way of mass murder called “the red
mass”, to our Modern Man, the modern practice of retributive justice; warrant of
arrest, caught in action, posas. In
this, to extent, comes the Philippine’s sensibility to the matter; from the Hispanic
Inquisition, remembering the Tres Martires namely GomBurZa, the Trese Martires
of Cavite, Rizal’s execution in Bagumbayan,
to our modern system, parak-parak, authority
that is diplomatic in public, albeit ever torturing to inside, and worst, the
Berdugo system that will later be discussed.
The comparison by Foucault, is that the Medieval and Renaissance
public execution somehow, more humanitarian and dignified than that of the
modern practice of retributive justice. He argues that this is mainly because
the public executions tend to create a shame not to those who is being executed
in public, albeit the one who is facilitating the executions. Modern justice
however tends to be more diplomatic on public, but more cruel and torturing on
the inside of cells, when no one is able to see.
What worst when it comes to our Berdugo system? A Berdugo, someone
who leads the nation, or perhaps in some are their ever loyal right-hand, is a
self-righteous theocrat, who used to put the law on his self-evident infallible
hands (George Orwell’s Animal Farm
produces us an example; it is when the pig Napoleon declared as “always right”). He is the god on his
pragmatic utopia. The question is, when an accused person by the Berdugo is not
really a criminal but an innocent man. What is now the use of the law, the use
of “Due Process”, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights: everyone is innocent until proven guilty. There’s
no use at all, because for the Berdugo’s pragmatic mind, if the person is
accused then the person is guilty, it is his pleasure to kill him.
The Martial Law gives us an obvious instance. Resty Fabunan,
the singer-lead guitarist of the martialawtic band Maria Cafra, according to him, he was arrested when walking home
from a gig in Manila, in the precinct he was surprised the authority holding a
pack of shabu, saying that it was
confiscated from him. The hamleting of Santa Filomena for instance, is a more display
of Berdugo. Joey Ayala described the incident in the song “Wala Nang Tao Sa
Santa Filomena” (there are no more people in the Santa Filomena), because due
to communitarian indoctrination to Kanayunan and Baryo, the Berdugo concluded
that all of the people living there were already their enemies, what they do is
mass murdering the whole town.
How I wish Filipinos will not elect another Berdugo anymore.
I heard a statement from a Humanist lawyer; a crime will not be solved by
another crime, it’s just like saying that the greatest attempt to destroy a
religion is ending up forming another one. Noam Chomsky’s point to call the US
as the world’s leading terrorist country in his book “9-11”, is because counter terrorism, when harming people, is terrorism
itself.
Rizal’s vision of a heaven (I will theorize it as Rizal’s
utopianist vision) was described on his last poem.
Voy donde no hay esclavos, verdugos ni opresores,
Donde la fe no mata, donde el que reina es Dios.
Donde la fe no mata, donde el que reina es Dios.
(I'll go where there are
no slaves, tyrants or hangmen
Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.)
Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.)
He described heaven,
before getting executed, as a place where there are no more verdugos and opresores.
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References:
Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir, 1975 (Gallimard, French)
Lloyd
Billingsley, Religion’s Rebel Son, 1986 US
translation of Rizal's poem not mine, but by Encarnacion Alzona & Isidro Escare Abeto
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