EDITORIAL – Taking justice in their own hands

It’s one thing when you are hungry and another thing when you steal. So when does being hungry justify the act of taking away another’s property? In the legal and moral sense, the end desired may not justify the means employed.
But when one steals a thing he is legally entitled as a matter of right, is it a crime?
These are the questions that face authorities after an irate mob of typhoon Pablo victims from Compostela Valley stormed the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development yesterday to ransack relief goods they ought to receive from government.
This scenario has been hanging like time bomb after a militant group representing the victims of typhoon Pablo in the two provinces were asked to submit the required list of would-be recipients of relief goods from DSWD before they can be given their share.
Despite the protest made by the typhoon victims, the DSWD stuck to its rule. ‘No list, no rice’ was the strict order of DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman. The condition likewise slammed any threat of protest.
And so the incensed Pablo victims led by the Barug Katawhan group and the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Southern Mindanao made true their threat—they took the fight to the DSWD’s own backyard in the same fashion as a People Power revolt, albeit pocket-sized, and forcibly carted away the relief goods.
This scenario is no different to the 1933 Great Depression in America when people queue up for free food called “bread line.” When bread runs out, expect pandemonium to break loose.
We understand that the obvious reason for doing so is to feed the hungry families in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental. But we also surmise under the circumstances that there could be a bigger motivation that pushed the group to seek justice by force and that is to prove the government that a hungry stomach cannot wait for documentary requirements.