MANY years ago, when there was an attempt to assassinate former vice president Emmanuel Pelaez near his home in Cubao, Quezon City, he asked: What is happening to our country?
I remember this event because of something that happened right behind our house in Balamban. Two weeks ago, a businessman-neighbor came out of his house. When he was in his yard, he was met with a hail of bullets. He died, with his killers left scot free.
During his burial last Sunday, his family distributed a cardboard fan with the following words printed on it: ?Justice for Victor Mapa.? Until now, that cry for justice has not been heard.
Something is going on in our country, not just in our own town. Look up any issue of our newspapers, whether it is for local or national circulation. Crime appears to have become a natural bedfellow of our daily life.
The other day, a woman from a mountain barangay came to our house with her daughter, bringing with her an affidavit of desistance that was not yet notarized. She asked what she was going to do about her husband and son who she thought was falsely accused of murder by their neighbor in Barangay Matun-og. Both her husband and son are in jail.
The lone witness who pointed to her husband and son as the killer, had decided to withdraw his testimony, declaring that he had falsely accused them. The affidavit needed notarization. I sent it to Atty. Jun Borgonia for legal help. In the meantime, father and son were in the municipal jail.
Where is justice?
In the case of the Mapa family, whose house is right behind our own, the theory was that he was killed because of a land dispute. It seems Victor had earlier exchanged words with a tenant in his property in Barangay Singsing, but up to now no one could say whether it was true or not.
In the case the wife who came to my house, she had earlier told me that many of her neighbors were willing to testify on their behalf. But later, she came to me to say that her neighbors had suffered cold feet, and turned her down. She was left alone.
This is the way we treat and regard our the justice system in our society--taken lightly and less seriously until the need for justice becomes the problem in one?s family. Then one realizes how truly important justice is to our society.
I never expected that the Mapa family had taken seriously the need for justice in the death of their businessman kin. Victor was considered a fair and gentle human being who only minded the family?s retail business. How could anyone have thought of killing him in cold blood?
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on December 13, 2012.
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Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/opinion/2012/12/13/roperos-crime-surge-258087
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