The recent massacre of over 50 people at the province of Maguindanao is a violent show of both power and oppression. It is a brazen disregard for human life all for the sake of dominion and greed.
While it may seem as just another case of politically motivated killings, or just an addition to the already lengthy list of human rights violations in the country, for me—a student of journalism—it is also another display of the suppression of freedom of speech and a call for the ever growing need to be more vigilant of the coming elections.
While it is uncommon to hear of ensuing violence in the provinces of Mindanao, it is also not the first time that the province of Maguindanao, and the Ampatuans, were focused by media regarding political issues. In the 2007 senatorial elections, Maguindanao was at the forefront of alleged cheating in the favor of the administration camp. The alleged cheating was supposedly responsible for the declaration of Sen. Zubiri as the twelfth senator and the win of GMA over FPJ in the Mindanao area. The Ampatuans were supposedly behind the cheating as they are known supporters of the Arroyo administration.
The presence of media men during the filing of Mangundadatu’s Certificate of Candidacy was but a natural occurrence. The journalists were only doing their job. Though a sense of foreboding may be expected given the history of political violence in the area, the recent massacre has taken political violence to a whole new level. Such an orchestration of a hundred gunmen, the order of killing every possible witness, the abominable way of treating human life, and the plan of burying everything to remove evidence is so despicable an act that one begins to think if power is indeed so important to cause all these?
The show of such an evil act for the purpose of eliminating opposition and attaining power is not just reflective of the dirty culture of politics in the country, but of our government’s inability to counter such occurrences. The police’s slow response to the crime scene and their apparent lack of intelligence regarding the matter is a complete undermining not only of our sense of security but also of our sense of justice. If those tasked to protect us are in league with those out to harm us, who can we then trust?
The massacre is a prime example of how the lack of effective leadership in our country and the corruption of those in power have led to the creation of paramilitary entities brave enough to undermine higher authority by committing such a massive scale of murder and cover up. Lawlessness over such a territory can be avoided if only those in higher power are able to enact justice on those who deserve to be punished. Throughout the history of this administration in which the President has gotten away with so many issues, even her cronies are deluded into thinking that they can also get away with heinous crimes.
This crime is a wake-up call for everyone. Power is devastating in the wrong hands, but we—the citizenry—is the higher power and we can do something about this lawlessness by placing power on rightful hands. This is certainly not the first incident, and may not be the last, unless we put a stop to it by being vigilant in casting and protecting our votes come election time.
