‘Murder,’ not EJK

The constant reporting on “extrajudicial killings” (EJKs) lately, especially with regard to Kian Loyd delos Santos, reminds me of what former president Benigno S. Aquino III was quoted to have said recently in your paper that the phrase itself is a misnomer because the Philippines has no death penalty so it has no “judicial killings.” Therefore, there is no such thing as “extrajudicial killings,” only “murder” (“Drug killings are murders — Aquino,” News, 8/23/17)

This reminds me of what Australian lawyer Julian Burnside meant when he wrote about “weasel words,” examples of which are “safe sex,” “therapeutic abortions,” “reproductive rights,” “compassionate release” (for euthanasia), “enhanced interrogation techniques” (for torture), etc.

A long dead Russian dictator once said that one death is a tragedy, but a million is a statistic. The number of those unlawfully killed may be over 10,000, with no end in sight.

People like Delos Santos and Danica May Garcia are not some anonymous faceless statistic nor “collateral damage.” They were once someone’s son, someone’s daughter.

Most of the perpetrators of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge killing fields have yet to face justice, but their victims’ remains are reminding the world of their crimes against humanity. Are we in a race to the bottom with the Khmer Rouge to eradicate the scourge of drugs?

We may do so only at the cost of our humanity and our souls, and will have to live with that shame.

Rambo was no hero to me, but the TV detective Columbo was.

WALTER PAUL KOMARNICKI, [email protected]