EDITORIAL - Joy and sorrow

As in the past years, most Filipinos expect their Christmas to be merry. A Social Weather Stations survey showed that 75 percent of Filipinos expect to have a happy Christmas.

Holiday celebrations, however, will be tempered this year in many areas of the country. For the first time since the last world war, the nation will welcome the birth of the Child Jesus with thousands of families mourning the loss of at least one member. A number of them will be haunted by the thought that their loved ones died in a gruesome way, with heads wrapped in plastic and packing tape. In this season of joy, church bells are also tolling for the dead.

Filipinos undoubtedly need protection from the menace posed by drug trafficking and abuse. Drugs ruin lives and families and can embolden the addict to commit heinous crimes. Drug dealers are also known to go to great lengths to preserve their lucrative business. They buy protection and abet corruption. They are prone to violence and are ready to kill. Kid gloves do not work on such ruthless thugs.

The war on illegal drugs is believed to have claimed such notorious traffickers, made incorrigible by the enormous profits from drug trafficking. But the nation will not know for sure, because suspects are being gunned down with no charges being filed, with guilt determined and the sentence handed down only by the forces of Oplan Tokhang.

There are communities that feel safer with drug dealers out of the way. As surveys indicate, people generally support any campaign to confront the drug menace. But the same surveys also show that most Filipinos want lives spared in the anti-drug campaign. And the surveys also show that with thousands of deaths attributed to masked vigilantes, many people fear that they will become casualties in a war waged by nameless, faceless combatants.

The grieving is most widespread in areas where poverty makes celebration difficult even on ordinary days. Tokhang has claimed mostly impoverished drug personalities, and the government has promised no end to the killing spree. It’s an abyss from which the nation may never be able to crawl back out. In this blessed season, the nation can pray to prevent this slide into darkness.