August 15, 2000, The Philippine Star, Editorial, Carnage In Bukidnon,

August 15, 2000, The Philippine Star, Editorial, Carnage In Bukidnon,

Who ever thought serving an arrest warrant could be so bloody? You must have seen the gruesome video footage, played over and over on cable TV during the weekend. And you must know by now what happens when you pit machetes against Armalite rifles. A team of policemen, accompanied by militiamen and a civilian guide, went to a colony of a religious cult called Catholic God's Spirit in the hinterlands of Bukidnon last Friday. The team was supposed to arrest a cult member wanted for attempted murder.

Cult members, however, tried to drive away the arresting team, hacking away with machetes. Police said some of the cult members fired home-made guns, prompting the arresting team to open fire. When the smoke cleared, three militiamen and the guide lay dead, together with 16 cult members, among them the subject of the arrest warrant.

It's easy to dismiss members of religious cults as crackpots. If they run amuck to prevent the arrest of a fellow member, then the arresting officers must defend themselves. If someone comes at you swinging a machete, then you fight back with the handiest weapon available. In this case, the arresting team was armed with rifles, and the weapons were used with deadly viciousness. Video footage showed the arresting team, obviously with superior firepower, finishing off cult members who lay wounded as well as those who tried to help the wounded.

What elicited this ferocious counter-attack by the arresting officers? Probably the sight of four of their members dying. It's different when you're out there fighting, a police officer explained yesterday. Maybe he's right. Law enforcers must be commended for the occasions when they do their job and try to enforce the law in dangerous situations.

Still, you wonder if the carnage could have been minimized if a better trained team had been sent to serve the arrest warrant. There have been too many occasions when police teams shot to kill when they could just as easily have fired to disable. The problem is aggravated when you add even more inexperienced militiamen to such teams. The nation mourns every law enforcer killed or wounded in the line of duty. But seeing the video footage of that encounter, you can't help wondering if the death toll -- both on the government and cultists' side -- could have been minimized. This tragedy should prod authorities to improve the training of cops, soldiers and militiamen on rules of engagement.