In mourning

I hail from the Philippines, and I am proud to say that we are famous all over the world for several reasons, some of which are as follows:

•  The incomparable beauty of Mayon Volcano, Banawe Rice Terraces and Chocolate Hills.
•  Filipinos were the first to overthrow a president and reclaim democracy by using the People Power in EDSA back in 1986.
• We supply doctors, engineers, nurses and other professionals worldwide. Where before we only export rice, dried mangoes and abaca abroad, now brain power and manpower have become our top exports; OFW remittances have paved the way for the economy to recover.
• We are a big pool of talent recognized worldwide. The Philippines is birthplace to Lea Salonga, Paeng Nepomuceno, Efren “Bata” Reyes, Mikee Cojuangco, Charice Pempengco, Arnel Pineda, and Manny Pacquiao, known all over the world for demonstrating exceptional talent and skills in their own respective fields.
• We are a people of heroes, most current of which is Efren Peñaflorida who is CNN’s Hero of the Year of 2009.

But just this Monday, our country became famous again, but in a really bad and horrible way. My friends, you might have heard or read already about the mass massacre of 57 people that happened in Maguindanao. I don’t want to post the pictures here because they were killed in the most gruesome way. It is sickening and very inhumane! I wonder how they can sleep at night, or even eat, for that matter, knowing that they did this to others.

I have maintained before that this blog will only focus on the good stuff; for news and other serious matters then readers can just open another browser window and go to political blogs and/ or other online newspapers, right? But ever since Typhoon Ondoy hit us, I realized that I don’t always have to live in a pink dreamworld. This is reality (no matter how ugly it is) we are talking about.

As I type, the person who is most suspected to be the head perpetrator has been arrested. I do hope that justice is served. I don’t know though whether I am for or against the death penalty. As Neil Gaiman said, “I believe in the death penalty if we can trust in the judicial system implicitly.” Well, I couldn’t agree more. Nothing can ever bring the victims back from the dead but the least the government can do for them is to ensure their families (and the rest of the country) that they did not die in vain.

As DJ Mo used to say, “Why are you bad, Philippines?” Why are the innocent killed, without any mercy at all, just for political gain? You may have all the power but your soul is corrupted. A life filled with hunger for power and thirst for money, who would want a life like that? Apparently there are some people who do.

These senseless killings definitely have to be stopped. I do hope the government does something about it and prove to the Filipino citizens that we did not vote for public officials and put them in power just so they can steal from the public funds.

It’s a sad day for us Filipinos. I am joining the country in this day of mourning.

*This is supposed to be my 26th of 30 posts for the 30-Day Blog Challenge but I cannot see anything beautiful here.