Remain vigilant! So as to remember the fallen!
(A message in commemoration of Maguindanao Massacre
2009-2013)
Tommorrow will be the commememoration of a tragedy that involved indiscriminate killings of those who stood for truth, that with their lives they had witnessed the impunity made by those whose intention is to keep themselves into power, that somehow mocks the foundations of freedom and democracy that should been observed and respected.
And the fact that the Philippines had remained Semifeudal and Semicolonial in orientation, freedom and democracy is all but a word, whilst clan-sponsored authoritarianism been deeply rooted, especially in warlord-dominated provinces like Maguindanao with then-leading clans like Ampatuan taking pride in their guns as a showcase of their power.
And with those guns that resembled prestige and power had been pointing at everyone, including those who speak for the truth. That Journalists, lawyers, and even family members of an opposing family had been killed and redescribed as putting law and order; but no! For if they afford to redescribe it then they had been justifying impunity and repression that affect not just those who seek truth from fact, but those who oppose consistently the policies that justify decades-old feudalism with its carrot and stick tactics.
And despite being unraveled by the people through news reports and yearly commemorations doesn't mean their repression will stop. Yes, the perpetrators remain dormant at their prison cells, or at large as they hid themselves from the people crying for justice, worse, aggravation of the present, dilapidated social structures had stunted calls for justice further with corrupt officials within the field of law emphasising personal desires over professional commitments.
That somehow for this writer would say it's all but a mockery of the victim's cries and the writeups being made, all in pursuit of seeking the most inconvenient truth from sicking facts given.
Anyways, despite all the shit those people on high had made, it is necessary to remain vigilant while those who afford to mimic justice remained lazy in their commitments. Right was NDF's Oris Madlos in his statement calling for justice for the victims of Maguindanao massacre last 2010, as he said:
"A year after the massacre, the process to attain justice has become overly strained and snail-paced under Noynoy Aquino’s watch. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has not yet been tried for her complicity in cases of grand malfeasance and of extra-judicial killings during her term. And, thus far, the current regime has offered nothing but the vague assurance that the case against the Ampatuan warlords would be “concluded within its six-year term.”
Yes, knowing that they are lazy in their commitments, the present system had still offered nothing other than a word of consolation, while few people whom took interest on the proceedings of the case had to listen to the hearing at Quezon City Regional Trial Court for the sake of truth (while mainstream media had less interest in listening aside from few comcerned people working), yet nothing happened other than Ampatuan and his clique trying to deny their responsibilities as murderers and aggravators of an existing problem over Maguindanao.
Knowing their backgrounds as pro-government allies with high powered guns and amassed wealth with their mansions, these Ampatuans rather chose to aggravate Maguindanao's problem on curbing poverty that made its people rather chose to rally on the side of Hashim Salamat and his Bangsamoro struggle. For sure these people, mostly dispossessed and chose to side with the rebels had endured walking on dirt roads and forced to content in their less developed communities during those times, while these Ampatuans, as well as warlords supporting, then in power had afford to construct mansions, that their names featured, an unofficial personality cult alongside then-President Arroyo.
Speaking of the former President, she tolerated Ampatuan and his gun-toting warrior clique under the pretext of anti-terrorism the way Marcos supported Dimaporo under the pretext of anti-subversion. Once, the muderer general Palparan had said that most of the guns Ampatuan buried near his mansions were very modern compared to the usual rifles and machine guns used by the military; yes, those weapons are supposedly used to combat the Bangsamoro struggle that of course, includes those from Maguindanao!
But that very same modern weapon is the same being used by these thugs to kill those who oppose their policies, or rather say afford to oppose as persons and willing to put them down. That again for this writer an example of their feudal-minded insistence of patronage politics, that those who oppose had to suffer or "go straight to hell" for having the mistake of opposing.
And this time seeing present-day's Aquino, via his sockpuppets afford to say that there's no more culture of impunity? The incident involving deaths of Journalists, lawyers, and some members of the Mangundadatu family will always be an example how these gun-toting landlords justify their "mutated Machiavellian nonsense" that those who stood their way meant death; and there will be others wanting to follow the footsteps of these murderers in keeping themselves into power.
And if the present administration, through his sockpuppets had afford to say "there's no more culture of impunity" then how about those at Hacienda Luisita? Of those who had been yearning for social justice? Anyways, these people are from the landed gentry, had afford to deny the sicking truth behind the mess that continues to creep everyone's minds. But people nowadays aren't blind, deaf, mute, stupid to acknowledge their nonsense nor tolerating it; and knowing that the vague assurance of the present system can't even assure their lives and healing, everyone should help each other in maintaining vigilance, and if possible oppose their moves from getting back to power, and to their impunity.
Remain vigilant, so as to remember the fallen!
No to fascism and state sponsored terrorism!
Justice for the victims of media-related killings and social injustices!
Freedom to the people!