Killings, tortures and crazed power

I was invited to a private lunch last week by three foreign ambassadors to the Philippines. The invitation had been extended to me about three weeks before. When the four of us finally had lunch, the Maguindanao massacre had just exploded in the headlines. The three ambassadors were all male, but I am so used to being at all-male gatherings, anyway, since telecommunications — during my long stint in government and in the international community of nations — has always been a male preserve.

The three ambassadors were one in saying that never in their long lives had they experienced anything like this in the whole world, happening as it did in a supposedly civilized democracy like the Philippines.

The tolerant posture of the present administration as regards warlord-ism, private armies and firepower poised for battle against anyone who disagrees, is the overriding cause of what has been universally denounced as a bestial massacre.

It was indeed an evil bacchanalia of tortures and killings en masse, firing at the genitals and breasts of women before they were brutally scratched from life; it was a gruesome rampage of butchery never before seen in our country ever. This is Satan rejoicing and grinning from ear to ear at his subjects.

It is also Satan again, smug with satisfaction at the calculated tolerance and nonchalance of the present leadership, as the warlords and supremos undertook the buildup of their arsenals — so mighty, in fact, has the firepower grown that the police forces stand by, scared to fight them should there be a need to do so.

To be condemned by virtually the entire civilized world, from the United Nations to the European Union, the United States, etc., has struck the sensibilities of an outraged citizenry with a ferocity that has broken the heart of the decent Filipino.

We can now only read about the agony of the bereaved: a little boy searching hopelessly for that space in the arms of his mother where he had always slept; the utter helplessness in the eyes of a father amid the distress of his little children still trying to comprehend what really happened; the unbelievable anguish of a mother as she discovers how the hands of her young news reporter of a son could have been so cruelly sliced.

In the past, I have interacted with and seen the pain so etched in the eyes of Edita Burgos, as she follows every clue to find her son Jonas through all these painful years since he disappeared from home. I have also personally looked into the saddest pairs of eyes of two mothers, as they tell me how their daughters’ disappearances never became important enough to be attended to by the presidency.

This calculated indifference, this flagrant and debased abuse of power, tolerating warlord-allies, their arsenals and firepower because of the tremendous election benefits they provide, emanates from the insanely gnawing desire to win at all costs, and at the cost of any life. These are what Satan brought to the negotiating table of death. And he won it all.

Satan made certain that the buildup of private armies and arsenals could be made to intensify as he skillfully guided the hands that signed the executive order that converted the private armed groups of the perpetrators into state-supported civilian volunteer organizations.

The handiwork of Satan? No doubt about that, for it was so easy, so simple for Satan to massage the mind of a leadership already debased and possessed, a leadership not just drunk with power, but helpless in the inordinate and insatiable desire for the trappings of power, so that there simply is no way to let go.

Amid this national shame and tumult, the announcement is made that Mrs. Gloria Arroyo will not be retiring from public service … she wants to serve the people as the representative of her home district.

The dirty trick is crystal-clear, for she will use her seat in Congress, whether as a member of the assembly or as speaker of the house, to employ tricky, manipulative congressional dynamics, sly leveraging tactics with the executive, which are nicer words to use than political blackmail.

She may have the legal right to run for a seat in Congress, but this is completely devoid of delicadeza. 

Why is it being said and reported that the reason she is seeking a legislative seat, running virtually unopposed, is because of the fact that she wants to protect her back — she wants to enjoy the same immunity she did as president?

This is incorrect, for presidential immunity and parliamentary immunity, which members of Congress are cloaked with, are oceans apart. Where presidential immunity is a sweeping, blanket immunity from suit, parliamentary immunity is so much less.

Senators and representatives are immune from liability in the performance of their functions in the halls of the Senate and the House of Representatives; even when they perform their tasks during committee hearings and sessions, for which reason we have witnessed some of the most derogatory words being used in privilege speeches. The legislator wears the cloak of parliamentary immunity and cannot be sued for libel. But the legislator is certainly not immune anymore when he or she is sued for plunder committed while in office as president, even though she is a legislator.

Madness and drunkenness can really seep in when one has enjoyed the kind of power a Philippine president holds. Remember what was said long ago: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

Last Sunday, I attended Holy Mass at Our Lady of Remedies parish church in Malate, quite a distance away from my home, but for some reason I wanted to go there. I found myself struck by the intensity of the words used by the priest as he delivered his sermon. He lambasted the private armies and arsenals that had grown in size in the past decade or so. As he talked about the “dark days we are going through right now,” he, however, lifted the spirits of the listening congregation when he said, “Darkness has many forms. Jesus, who is the Light, has given it to us in many forms. But mind you, there is every reason to know that deliverance is near at hand.”

I found out later when I went to the vestry after Mass that the priest’s name was Fr. Kevin McHugh of the Columban order, who has lived in our country for about 50 years, and as a missionary priest in Mindanao for about 30 years. That was the reason the pain and disgust showed in his words.

Was I being naïve by feeling good when he said, “Deliverance is near at hand”?

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