CELSO Pojas is dead. Celso who? Many clueless residents may ask. But for those in the street scene, his face is recognizable. He's one of the stalwarts there, never giving up the fight against the administration.
In what is now known as "DDS-style" of killing, Pojas was shot dead Thursday outside his residence in Ma-a, police said.
For a farmer-leader to be shot dead in Davao City is a cause for outrage.
For so long we have maintained relative peace, where everyone is free to voice out his outrage against a system that refuses to listen to its people, where everyone is also free to praise officials and be sycophants of those in power, and where just as free too are those who would drum up their own achievements.
Just look around our streets, they're all there. The rallyists, the streamers, the paints on the walls, the billboards, and yes, the Araw ng Dabaw and Kadayawan parades.
Look deeper, and you'll find an occasional rebel leader on rest and recreation.
No one here deserves death, except those who are really into criminal acts. Not that Sun.Star believes that, but that's the tacit message we are receiving because no one has protested the deaths of all those petty criminals, neighborhood thugs, and drug pushers.
But what's more disturbing than Pojas' death is that the killers struck at the height of the news about the abduction of retired sergeant Jose Manero and the admission of military sources who refused to be named on the day the incident happened that the Maneros were in fact headed for Davao to revive the Alsa Masa.
We dare to ask then, who told them to come here? Who said we need the Alsa Masa? Somebody's hand is moving here, and it goes against what we have accepted Davao City to be -- a place for peace to all those who come in peace.
May the City Government take heed and find out what's happening because we cannot accept another death just like that and we do not need outsiders to meddle in our peace and order concerns. We have our police, the military, and the local government; which for so long have done their share in preserving the peace.
