The decision to start investigating police elements involved in the torture and slay case of youth Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman last 2017 hit the news today. This is a positive step towards attaining justice for all victims of extrajudicial and arbitrary killings by police and military. This is a direct result of the unrelenting and courageous campaign of the mass movement for their rights. However, the fight is far from over. Arnaiz and De Guzman’s case is only one among the never-ending list of PNP and the state’s crimes against the Filipino nation.

The people’s struggle against the culture of impunity within the mercenary force of the PNP and AFP, as well as the whole bureaucracy, continues. The list of cases of human rights violations, especially killings and massacres, in which involved police and military elements are not brought to justice seems to be endless. They must not be allowed to run scot free from their crimes and brutal attacks against the people. Not because there is one case that has been recognized will the culture of impunity already entrenched within the system disappear. The victims’ families do not owe it to the state if the government acts on their kin’s cases. This is part of the state’s mandate to its citizens.

The larger issue is not just the culture of impunity but the state and its armed forces brazen hand as masterminds of systematic violence and killings. The public must sharply oppose the incessant AFP-PNP oppressive campaigns primarily pointed towards the civilian population. If these militaristic policies do not exist, no family would be forced to search for justice.

In the end, if there is one thing that Arnaiz and De Guzman’s case proves, it is that justice in the Philippines will never be voluntarily offered by those in power. As long as the system is rotten and the armed forces serve the interests of the few, it must be fought for and defended assiduously. The nation cannot expect anything from a violent state that in itself targets and violates the rights of its people. The masses only hope can be found in their class unity and struggle.