#StopTheKillingsPH

By Daniel Franklin E. Pilario, CM



When I saw the viral video of the killing in Tarlac, I remember my commentary on Pope Francis' Fratelli Tutti. Here is an excerpt:

"The pope’s concern for “cultural openness” is rightly aimed at countering the narrow nationalist and violent populist sentiments that plague the US and European continents. The arrival of “someone different” is in fact a gift, the pope reminds us.

But beyond this attitudinal and cultural injunction - which is necessary - we also need to critique the real enablers, the hard political powers that make possible the act of “othering”, this planned and well-funded process of marginalizing and silencing people who are different.

"In the Philippines, this present government consistently demonizes and effectively eliminates those who are different – the voices of dissent – which threatens its monologic power. It calls them “terrorists”, place their names on the drug list, red-tag them as “communists”. There has been a blanket authority from the start: "Sagot ko kayo." There is no better way to operationalize impunity which has now become the rule of the day.

This can embolden any trigger-happy policeman or their assets to just shoot any time: "Putang ina mo gusto mo tapusin kita ngayon ah?" (Son of a bitch, you want me to finish you off now?). This is not an isolated case. It has been happening in the last four years.

The other week, the mayor of Los Banos, whose name was found in the narcolist years ago, was shot within his municipal hall premises. Some days ago, the only doctor in Guihulgan, who was serving the mountain areas during the pandemic despite being red-tagged years ago, was killed together with her husband. In Payatas, more than a hundred who found their names in the drug list were killed, some in front of their children. There were many thousand others who were killed before them.

What we have in our midst are not just “racists” who do not like other people. What we have are people of power who use our country’s resources to eliminate all threats in order to keep themselves in power forever."

Come Lord Jesus. Do not delay. They are killing us.



Daniel Franklin Pilario, C.M.
St. Vincent School of Theology
Adamson University
danielfranklinpilario@yahoo.com
12.21.2020