EDITORIAL - Getting ridiculous

This is getting to be ridiculous. First, the previously convicted killers of the three female members of the Vizconde Family have been set free, making it appear that nobody killed them at all.

Then, right here in Cebu, the security aide of a mayor got shot on the leg and eventually died of complications from that wound. As to who shot him, nobody seems to want to start talking. It is as if nobody shot him at all.

And now here comes the strangest twist yet. In the infamous Maguindanao Massacre that saw the slaughter of more than 50 people, it is now being suggested that some of the victims died of illness than gunshot wounds. Picture them dropping dead from coughing.

In each of these instances, power and influence seem to dictate the great initiatives to get those suspected of involvement off the hook. Justice is supposed to apply to everybody but in each of these instances, it seems to be working only one way.

It does not help the cause of the weak and powerless that many of the appropriate agencies of government that could have helped bring about a more balanced application of justice should appear to be perceptibly on the side opposite the aggrieved.

The cry in any quest for truth and justice is to let the chips fall where they may. And that should be a cry that goes for both the accused and the aggrieved. If let alone as it should, that should be fair enough to all concerned.

But it seems that nobody can ever let the quest for truth and justice be. Nobody can ever leave it alone. Efforts but subtle and brazen just cannot but be made to influence and sway the quest one way or another, but more often away from those who truly need justice on their side.

And that is why this is getting to be ridiculous. It is ridiculous because when nobody gets to answer for a crime, it would in the end appear that the victims may just as well have perpetrated the crime upon themselves.