The
cold-blooded and pre-meditated killing of the Catholic priest Fr. Mark Ventura.
37, at about 8:15 am after celebrating mass at a gymnasium in Brgy. Pena Weste
in Gattaran town, Cagayan, sends chills to the country. He was killed as he was
blessing children and talking with choir members after the mass. The killers
knew full well that he was a priest; they were bold enough to kill in broad
daylight in front of people. The killers were so brazen! This happened four months
after another priest, Fr. Tito Paez, was killed on Dec 4, 2017 in Nueva Ecija,
again by raiding in tandem assailants.
What is
happening to our country? As of now it is still too early to find the motives
for the killing of Fr. Mark Ventura. What is clear, however, is that peace and
order is getting out of hand. The killers are so bold because they know that
they cannot be caught, either because they are protected by powerful people or
they know that the police and the intelligence community in our country are
inept – or even both!
How
have we come to this? A culture of killing has been unleashed! If they can kill
priests, they can kill anybody! Talagang wala ng takot sa Diyos ang pumapatay
ng pari. Kung wala ng takot sa Diyos, kahit na ano maaari ng gawin! A great
blame can be thrown to the thousands of
extra judicial killings that have been done in the name of the War on
Drugs. So many so-called vigilante killings and killings by people riding in
tandem are just simply listed “under investigation” and not one of the
thousands has been solved. This sends a strong message that the police is very
inept to solve crimes, if they themselves are not complicit in the
killings.
The
police has to show that there is no culture of impunity. The criminals are to
be brought to trial. Can the police do this? I strongly doubt. The killing of
Fr. Tito Paez is still “under investigation.”
If the
authorities cannot, or will not, do their responsibilities, the people should
stand up. We should demand that killings should stop, that human rights be
respected, that the big fishes should be caught and made to answer. We cannot
just stand by and let things be.
We can
connect this culture of impunity to the case of Sr. Patricia Fox. Can the
government just send out missionaries on flimsy accusations without even due
process? We can also connect this culture of impunity with the pro warranto
case of CJ Sereno. Even the justices of the Supreme Court cannot act with
impunity that they can do blatantly illegal decisions. The Supreme Court cannot bend the laws!
Our
present Constitution tells us that sovereignty ultimately resides on the
people. Let the people now act and stand up!
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