drug-testing-tips

ESTREMERA: MURDER MAINSTREAMED

Spider's Web

*A long time ago, make that in the early 1990s, a man was found dead, stripped of his shirt and left with a brown carton marked: "Drug pusher ako, huwag tularan.--Davao Death Squad".

I'VE been told naman that those who get killed are not legitimate media," an acquaintance said during dinner conversation.

"Ay ambot, basta ang nabal-an nako legitimate gyud 'tong mga gipamatay sa samo ( I don't know with yours, but what I know is that those who were killed in our ranks were legitimate media practitioners )," my friend Amy burst out.

Yes, like the urban legend called the Davao Death Squad, the murder of journalists has likewise become an urban legend of sorts with the same story line--that those who were killed deserved to be killed.

And so the killers go on, uncaught, unpunished because of the urban legend that has gripped the people's minds and has allowed murders to be part of mainstream daily life.

Yes, some of those killed were into some nefarious sidelines using the power of the media to coerce.  And those victimized who can no longer stand the coercion has decided to snuff out a life and silence that "medium" forever.

Whoever was the first one to fall, after the repressive martial law regime anyway where everyone and anyone would just fall or disappear or land behind bars, I don't think anyone can remember outright.  But, one thing I can be sure of, that murder has not been solved.

And then another...  and then another...  and then another...

A long time ago, make that in the early 1990s, a man was found dead, stripped of his shirt and left with a brown carton marked: "Drug pusher ako, huwag tularan.--Davao Death Squad".

Another follower, and then another...  and...even though there was no longer a carton sign stating the dead one's crime when still alive and who was claiming responsibility for his death, everyone already believes the murdered person was a pusher killed by the DDS.  Those murders, too, were never solved.

No witness, case closed

More than a decade has passed and the killings continue.  Ever since those first few deaths in the early 1990s, not one of the killers again took the pains of leaving a sign, a letter or whatever.  It's just pump bullets in the head or heart and leave.

But there's a big difference now.  While before the bodies would be found in the morning or in some deserted place, now the killings are done in broad daylight amid crowds of people--neighbors, families, and friends of the victims.  Interestingly, still no witnesses, cases still closed.

Why this is so? Because the urban legend has been spawned.  Those who were killed deserved to be killed and the killers are the Davao Death Squad who has taken it upon themselves to free the world from evil.

Ordinary mortals like us and our neighbors and those poor people amid whom boys and men are murdered shouldn't interfere because that's justice meted out.  Stay away...  the echoes of gunshots years ago seem to say.  Keep off...  the ring of new gunshots are shouting.  Because this form of justice might hit back at you for daring ot step on its way.

And now the journalists, and the town mayors, and...

You're right, it's not just the journalists being killed.  In the same way that it was not just the drug pushers who were being killed all throughout these years.  It's people killing people and murderers getting to murder yet another day.  And still no one would witness, the cases will again be closed and forgotten.

They're now killing each other in the slums.  The specter of DDS silencing the people, although grieving mothers are whimpering: No, it's not the DDS.  We know who killed our sons but no one among those who saw would dare speak up...

Simply because the police had always been right when they said there is no and has never been a DDS.  But the killings were allowed to remain unsolved ( and "unprevented" ) and the myth allowed to prosper and no one dared to continuously cry out for justice.  Thus, today, anyone can hide beneath the cloak of this myth and sneak out amid a crowd of witnesses who all didn't see anything.

With impunity then, people are now killing both boys and men in inner city communities and .45 caliber pistols seem to be everywhere in the same number as motorcycles are all over town.

Murders unsolved, loose guns everywhere, willing men ready to kill for any amount, bad economy.  Pretty soon it will not be that profitable to kill in the inner city communities...  the schools, the better-off communities, the disputing families, the business centers beckon as murder is mainstreamed into the consciousness of the people.

The message has long been said and echoed and re-echoed and...  ad nauseum.

In this part of the world, anyone can get away with murder.