|
Friday, February 10, 2006
Roperos: Of destiny and death
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
THERE is obvious ambivalence in the public’s attitude toward destiny and death, or crime and punishment prevailing in our society today. This is particularly so in the reported “vigilante killings” in Davao, and more recently in Cebu.
The killings have troubled keen observers of human rights and brought to the surface the conflict of attitude of civilized citizens. It is actually the conflict of our sense of good and evil, of the legal and illegal.
Unknown personages who have run out of patience in the way our so-called civilized justice moves are supposedly the ones who resort to vigilante justice. For them, vigilante justice somehow renders decisions swiftly sans court trials.
But that is really not the way of justice in a vibrant democracy like ours. Our justice system may grind ever so slowly, but it gives time to our courts to weigh the “truth” claimed by either side. Still, it has become exasperating to more and more of our citizens, many of whom believe that our courts could be corrupted.
There seems to be a growing need among our people for swift justice. This was aptly demonstrated in the recent stampede at the Ultra sports center in Pasig City last Saturday. The speed with which blame was laid on the shoulders of the event organizers by a national official should be a case in point.
The stampede victims must have come to the affair that promised a fun-filled and prices-laden day entirely unsuspecting of what fate had in store for them. It is deeply touching to imagine the victims alive and vibrant one moment and dead or dying the next moment.
In that flash of an instant, who was the criminal, what crime has been committed?
When the tragedy occurred, the search for persons to blame also began. Someone said the tragic event exposed the good and the bad in people. It even became the opportune moment for a sub-cabinet official to promote himself on television by trying to assume grief over the dead and the dying.
But that does not belittle the sense of good and bad among most of us who saw the tragic event unfold in our television sets Saturday morning. There is a sense of fatal destiny in the life of the people who became victims of the stampede that transformed what could have been a joyous event into a horrifying dilemma for its organizers.
I would not essay even a conjecture on who is to blame, or how the lost lives and limbs may be compensated. What the incident reminded me of, though, was the book I read years back called the “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.”
If my memory serves me right, it was a tale of people who rode a bus one fateful day. Just as the vehicle reached San Luis Rey, an accident happened. The author traced the life of each of the passengers that led to their riding the bus.
By the same token, what could have been the force that drove the stampede victims to the Ultra last Saturday? Was it really poverty?
The answer would depend on what sort of motive one may have in his heart and mind at the moment. If it was politics, then mass poverty resulting from our unstable economy would be it. If it was to seek fun and pleasure, then the motive would be more personal, and none has to be blamed, and so on.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 10, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
