The incident happened on the first day of July shocked the whole city of Davao, and even broaden to the whole nation instantly, when media caught a very exasperated Mayor Sara Duterte who punched a court sheriff for four times because of insisting on demolishing houses inside a contested property in Barangay Soliman in Davao’s Agdao district last Friday.
According to the Mayor, she ordered the Sheriff to spare only two hours for her to attend to their needs since there was still an on-going relief operation for the victims of the flood disaster in Matina, which happened prior that day.
“I was in the middle of 13,000 people who are badly in need of assistance and here you are doing this?” she said exhaustedly, she formally told the demolition team she did not want bloodshed, thus she want to talk to the people initially before any action will be implemented.
In my very own view, there is partly a right and wrong side of the incident, I would consider that using cruelty such as physical injury under position is very unethical, however even the demolition, and the police officers also impaired other informal settlers in the area.
But I also find this incident a very responsible, if only implied by the two parties’ orderly, since the Mayor does not want a single shedding of blood on the area; she knew the people are ready to fight back especially when they know they’ve dealt initially with the Mayor and not the demolition team. She even clearly stated out that the demolition will not stop; all she wants was for it to be in an orderly manner, so no one would get hurt or would opt for a violent reaction.
I would understand Mayor’s stand, because her motive was not to inflict harm to anyone, that she is just mainly protecting her city the way she pledged to it, to defend the poor constituent of the city. The only problem is the act of neglect of the sheriff to the Mayor’s request, was the two hour extension request of Mayor Sara Duterte, a matter of life and death of the career dignity of the judiciary?
To wrap it up, there will always be two sides of every story, each party made a mistake but what matters most for me, is the one who wants to protect the people rather than protecting their image.
SOURCE: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/20369/davao-mayor-punches-sheriff-over-demolition-of-shanties-2
