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Monday, September 13, 2004
Maxey: With a grain of salt
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
'One fact is clear: Mosquito nets can stop mosquitos, but not bullets.'
THOSE who read the newspapers, whether local or national, often come across news items, which need a second or third look for the reader to make heads or tails of the stories. That's because some news items are written in such a way as to confuse the reader.
Especially stories, which are hurriedly written in order to beat the newspaper's deadline and there is just no more time to check the truth or veracity of the event around which the story was written. That is why the more discerning reader will not simply take the story, or some parts of the story, as the gospel truth if they raise certain questions in the reader's mind. These questions will remain unanswered until they are straightened out in a subsequent follow-up of the item in succeeding issues of the newspaper.
An example of this predicament on the part of the confused reader was an item in the September 9, 2004 issue of Sun.Star Davao captioned: Man, pregnant wife killed in 'encounter'.
At about 5 a.m. the day before, the house of Bakar Jafal Ali and his wife Carmelita in Barangay Bincungan, Tagum City was reportedly strafed by a group of soldiers belonging to the 404th Brigade of the Philippine Army based in Mawab, Compostela Valley. The soldiers were led by a certain Sgt. Jerry Napoles. The husband died in a hail of bullets while still inside his mosquito net and Carmelita died of her wounds later at the Davao Regional Hospital. Napoles had claimed it was a legitimate encounter.
Talib Jafal Ali, Bakar's elder brother filed double murder charges against Napoles and 31 of his men before the Tagum City Prosecution Office. He has two witnesses, neighbors of the victims, who claim that what happened that night was a massacre and not an encounter.
Lt. Col. Agane Adriatico, commander of the Civil Relations Group of the AFP, insists that what transpired was a legitimate encounter that lasted 10 minutes, adding that the soldiers recovered two .38 caliber revolvers, one shotgun and a backpack. On the other hand, Talib said 55 empty M-16 (rifle) shells, two empty M-14 shells and an M203 grenade launcher were likewise recovered at the scene.
Now the questions. (1) Was it a legitimate encounter? (2) Why did it take a 10-minute firefight to "subdue" the couple who were allegedly merely armed with revolvers? (3) How come Bakar Jafal Ali was found dead inside his mosquito net if he had engaged the soldiers in a firefight for ten minutes? Try to figure that one out.
The foregoing is the type of news item, which leaves the reader in a quandary because of the contradicting statements from both sides of the controversy. Who is telling the truth? That will remain a mystery for now. Or forever.
One fact is clear: Mosquito nets can stop mosquitos, but not bullets.
(September 13, 2004 issue)
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