Rulership and Judgment

On one occasion during the final days of Jesus’ ministry, the mother of Jesus’ close disciples James and John came to Jesus and said: “Give the word that these my two sons may sit down, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” (Matthew 20:21) Clearly, she was not speaking about something in the heart of her sons. She understood that the Kingdom involved rulership with Jesus, and she wanted her sons to have a share in it. In fact, Jesus did promise his 11 faithful apostles that they would be in his Kingdom and “sit on thrones” and “judge” with him. (Luke 22:30) To his followers, then, Jesus’ Kingdom was to be a real rulership—an administration, a government.

What about the people in general in Jesus’ day? Did they understand the Kingdom to be just a personal transformation, or did they expect something more? Well, shortly before Passover 33 C.E. when Jesus was entering Jerusalem riding a colt, the crowd welcomed him and some cried out: “Save, we pray, the Son of David!” (Matthew 21:9) Why did they cry out that way? No doubt they had come to recognize that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that God would give him an everlasting Kingdom, “the throne of David his father.” They longed for the salvation, peace, and justice that they Kingdom would bring.—Luke 1:32; Zechariah 9:9.

No perfect crime - 2

But even if Dacer belonged to a world where ethical lines were blurred if not totally ignored, that was no excuse to murder him. That many of those indicted for his murder are police officers, such as Cesar Mancao II and Glenn Dumlao who were arrested in the United States where they had fled to escape justice, only reinforces the public’s suspicion that some police officers are in reality agents of the criminal underworld. According to investigators, Dacer and his driver were abducted in broad daylight in a busy street in Makati, brought to Dasmariñas, Cavite, where they were tortured, and then taken to Indang, Cavite, where they were strangled to death and their bodies burned. Their remains were identified through dental records.

The brutality of the murder should make the public welcome Mancao and Dumlao’s arrest while deepening their wariness of the police. But the public should be equally wary about the politics that may taint politically charged controversies like Dacer’s killing. It seems, for example, quite suspicious that cases seem to be resurrected from the tomb of historical forgetfulness every time national elections draw near.

With or without politics, killings like Dacer’s cry out for justice. They must be resolved and the perpetrators haled to court and convicted. It is a sign of a mature democracy when criminal cases and other violations of the law are investigated, tried and resolved, without any political compulsion or consideration for personalities, regardless of their status in society or their social entitlements, and regardless of their political office or the size of their bank accounts.

While we’re at it, we should demand results from other cases involving high officials, particularly former undersecretary of agriculture Jocelyn Bolante, who disbursed P728 million in fertilizer funds to congressmen at the height of the 2004 election, ran off to the United States to escape the heat, and who’s now facing congressional grilling after he was extradited by American authorities. Another case is the murder of journalist Marlene Esperat, who had exposed Bolante. These cases show how politics and killings seem wedded like tangled vipers. Justice should untangle the knot.