EDITORIAL - Justice is sad even though it prevails

Killing is always tragic and exacts unconsolable anguish. Murder, even more so. But no murder in contemporary history is probably more tragic and exacts more unconsolable anguish than that which took out the life of Ruby Jade Ruba.

Ruby was a few days from graduating with a Nursing degree when, for no other reason than to steal her cellphone, two young men, Aivan Barabat and Mark Anthony Gabriel, shot her dead in March 2008. (Her school did her justice by graduating her posthumously with her class).

Because all killing diminishes humanity, no factor ought to make one killing more tragic and exact unconsolable anguish over another. But because we are only human, we will always be saddled with the seeming need to make distinctions.

And thus many people felt particularly aggrieved over the killing of Ruby, including those who never knew her and heard about her for the first time only when news broke out about her murder.

Taking up a Nursing course entails great sacrifice. Not only has it become one of the most expensive courses around, but many Nursing students do not really like Nursing. They are forced to take the course because it is their only real shot for a well-paying job overseas.

Ruby was just a few days before reaching the threshold of her and her family’s dream (she comes from a poor family in Macrohon, Southern Leyte) when the killers chanced upon her with her cellphone.

It would come as no surprise if, in the deepest recesses of their beings, some people would go to the extent of asking God what the fairness was in snuffing out the life of one so young and so hopeful, and all for one darn cellphone, which was not even expensive.

After a two-year trial, Barabat and Gabriel were finally found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Only because the Philippines has done away with the death penalty were the killers able to escape paying with their lives.

But maybe it is better this way, that for the rest of their lives, Barabat and Gabriel will constantly be reminded of what they did, of the pain and disruption they caused society, and the folly of miscalculating the value of human life. Justice, for once, has prevailed.