EDITORIAL - Anak

The earliest video footage we saw of Jason Ivler was of an earlier arrest, and from there we formed our first impression of him — as somebody different and potentially dangerous. Unlike others his age who get arrested, he did not show fear.

Instead he was up in the clouds. He was bobbing as he walked, his hands handcuffed behind his back. He looked so much as if he was singing to himself we were afraid he would break into a strut, like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

Here was a man who has figured everything out, good or bad, and thus no longer cared about consequences. Everything that happens happens because it had to. No sense worrying about something beyond your control. A man of such inner peace is dangerous if criminally-bent.

On the other hand, the first video footages we saw of Marlene Aguilar, the mother of Jason, was of a woman distraught over the fate of a dearly beloved son. Almost whispering when she speaks, her flawless English automatically made her seem "intelligent." She broke our hearts.

But things are not always what they seem. For all the hatefulness Ivler generated with his cool arrogance, there was nothing fake in him. He was simply the cold and fractured lost boy that irresponsible motherhood has made of him.

No matter how dastardly the killings attributed to him, there is an explanation to the crime and why he could have done them. But the quietly scheming "consentidor" mom that mangled a beautiful creation of God into a horrible and savage robot is both inexplicable and unforgivable.

Marlene Aguilar is the younger sister of Freddie Aguilar, whose haunting music and lyrics in the song "Anak" made it a global hit in the late 1970s. Freddie composed the song, but Marlene made it happen in real life.

We cannot begrudge the love of Marlene for her son. The "undyingness" of it, of her willingness to "take a thousand bullets" for her son makes it admirable. But her cup runneth not over with love. It runneth over with failure as a mother.

The Virgin Mary understood perfectly why Jesus had to die and willingly gave him up. There is no greater grief than in doing that. But with that grief was realized the greatest love of all. Marlene inhabits the farthest frayed edges of true love and thus made Jason what he is.