The President said “shoot them dead” and, like the plague, people were dropping dead – children barely out of their cradles, teenagers on the eve of their exams, 72 year-old peace advocates in their rented homes, young activists just hours after an elderly loved one was laid to rest. Hindi lang pala spokesperson ng China si Duterte, spokesperson din siya ni Kamatayan. Bulaang propetang kasawian ang dulot ng bawat buga ng bunganga.
Sa loob lamang ng isang linggo, tatlo agad ang magkakasunod na pinatay. Randy Echanis, tortured, stabbed, shot; peasant Reken Remasog, legs amputated, shot; and now Zara Alvarez, mother, volunteer health worker and human rights defender, shot multiple times in front of her own home in Negros. What do they have in common? They were all victims of red-tagging, of that vicious defense mechanism of every tyrannical regime to brand every critic as an enemy of the State.
Eto ba ang sinasabi nila sa atin na walang dapat ipangamba sa Anti-Terror Law? Matatandaan din na tumindi ang extrajudicial killings sa Negros simula noong ipataw ni Duterte sa isla ang Memorandum Order No. 32. Talagang ang rehimeng takot sa sariling multo, lagi’t lagi ay magtatago sa likod ng batas upang gawing lehitimo ang panunupil sa taumbayan.
Brutal indeed, but what isn’t brutal in this murderous and tyrannical regime? From the drug war to its response to the pandemic, everything was about making people toe the line with fear and submission. Apat na taon na, puro pa rin pananakot at pagpatay ang bukambibig ng presidente. Inuuna ang pagpapatahimik sa mga kritiko kaysa solusyunan ang pandemya sa ating bansa.
The messianic complex that launched this reign of terror in our land, that lust for total power and control will bring many more deaths after Zara’s murder. But with every death, thousands more will rise to continue the fight. Sa bawat buhay na kinitil at kikitilin, palapit na palapit din sa hukay at paghuhukom ang malagim na pamumunong apat na taon nang pinagdurusa ang sambayanan. Death may have silenced Zara but there will be no victory for her murderers.
Panatiko ng China si Duterte, hindi ba niya alam yung sinasabi ni Sun Tzu sa kanyang Art of War tungkol sa hustisya? “Wheels of justice grind slow but grind fine.” No perpetrator and no enabler will be spared. Justice will be done.
(Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 885 here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_no._885)