On Maguindanao

The recent massacre in Maguindanao conducted by at least a hundred armed men on 52 individuals composed of journalists, lawyers, female members of the rival clan, and even passers by has aroused significant outrage in the Philippines and prompted the disturbing questions – of those who committed the murders, was there no one who stood up and said, this is just wrong. Considering the facts now known – the systematic killing/burial in broad daylight, the rapes and the beheadings, where does morality stand?

Former Defense Secretary/presidentiable Gilbert Teodoro said, The massacre was a barbaric act that can be done only by a lunatic person or group, but was it really that? Would it be perhaps even more difficult to accept if the people involved simply acted in the heat of the moment – their moral stands kept at bay, performing their ‘duties’, then going back to take the other roles in their lives, as community members, as fathers and sons? Would it be easier to accept that perhaps there was one, or two, or several dissenting voices, perhaps muffled by the rest? Speaking up does have its consequences as proven by the massacre – that a person seeking to challenge the political reign would get his family killed, his lawyers, his witnesses.

There are no answers to these and not much comfort to the families and friends of those lost. We join the rest of the nation in condemning the act, and the culture of fear and impunity which as made it all possible.