In memoriam

Ric Maulion

“Stop stranger when you pass me by. As you are now so once was I. As I’m now so you would be. Prepare therefore to die and follow me.” -Epitaph at Arizona Cemetery

YOU were there.

Cemeteries transformed into a sea of humanity last week. It speaks well not just about the value but most importantly the importance of celebrating life through death. That makes death undoubtedly beautiful. If it happens naturally, in God’s time, why not?

Death is the final stage of growth we will all experience and it is a welcome development in crossing the great beyond.

“Nothing in this world is sure than death and taxes.” Don’t fret. You would all be receiving your own death certificates anyway once you get your hard earned “PhD” (Pahulay Dayon) in God’s time. What an experience, finally, to meet God face to face!

But what about those whose lives were snapped out of the blue by the Grimm Reaper like the hapless victims of extra-judicial killings? Thirteen to 16 thousand lives were already lost, and we’re still counting as the so-called “war on drugs” is delegated to PDEA from PNP by President Duterte.

“God knows Hudas not pay,” reads the writings on the jeepney. It is even ironic that powers-that-be trivialized the numbers. They want to add more to the cleansing of “undesirables,” they said, in the continuing war on drugs.

The figures are not just collateral damage. They are people. These are lives lost. Children as young as four, five and seven, PAB wrote. Of course, these were extra-judicial killings from 1998-2008 (or even before that).

The Coalition Against Summary Executions (Case) alone registered at least 890 cases. But that is peanuts compared to Davao alone when Duterte was mayor.

Let’s start with 1,424 “DDS” victims. Fr. Armando Picardal, former spokesperson of Case in his 1998-2015 file, has the figures and other data.

You talk of Carl, Kian and Kulot’s untimely death lately as isolated cases. Fine. But look how innocent souls cry out loud from heaven, begging the question why they were implicated and their lives sacrificed in the name of the purging of the so-called misfits. Consider the age bracket of the majority of the supposedly unwanted victims of EJKs. One hundred-thirty two “were young people not more than 17 years old by the time of their untimely death” And here’s the catch: “… all unarmed when they were taken…” One hundred-twenty six were boys and six were girls. Of the total DDS victims, 56 were female. Incredible but true.

None of perpetrators were charged in court. You must have seen the investigation at Senate and have witnessed how partisan politics prevailed, securing the immunity of the President and his cohorts.

Let’s just see how they would fare this time with the EJKs taken to ICC. From the looks of it, the Dirty Twelve involved in the conspiracy would have their day full soon.

Add 3,900 plus of the anti-narcotics operation among more than 13,000-16,000 EJK victims. The number is simply vast, the reason why the Catholic Church leaders and the Coalition against EJKs woke up finally from their stupor.

Earlier, too, we have seen how 40 United Nation members states protested vehemently the EJK practice by this government. There is a threat of an economic embargo. What an easier way of squeezing the country’s economy clean and dry the way some Latin American countries experienced when they didn’t pay their debt obligations to World Bank.

Add the Marawi siege’s 919 “terrorists,” 165 soldiers/policemen and 1,780 civilians who were killed. It sounds like the country is on fire.

Let’s start the healing, Bishop Socrates Villages enjoined. So be it. Better to start with ourselves. Regrettably those faceless victims might have not been individually imbued with religiosity as drugelated problems are mostly borne out of poverty. Many were not spiritually grounded. But collectively, we can start the healing from within and end this curse from God.

From there we could edit the epitaph: “To follow you I’ll never be content. Until I know which way you went.”