PEOPLE don’t normally tarry upon hearing reports of killings, after all these are normal occurrences even in a supposedly civilized setting. But they do tarry when the killings are particularly brutal or when the number of those killed is big. An exception is during a war situation when people generally lose their humanity.
In the mountain barangay of Malubog in Cebu City yesterday, five people were killed under mysterious circumstances early in the morning. While admittedly there was a time in the past when that area became violence-prone when rebels and government forces waged war there, that already seemed eons ago. The number of victims thus grabs our attention.
Let us not dwell as yet on motivations because police investigators are still looking into the incident. But let us consider context. Elsewhere, nine people were killed in One Time, Big Time operations by the police, six In Talisay City and three in Cebu City. That was also yesterday. The victims supposedly fought it out with police operatives. Still the number of those killed was high--14 in all in one day. That’s an attention-grabber.
There is another way that killings could attract wide attention even when only one person is killed: when the victim is not the common man but one with a relatively high position in society. This was why the killings of policemen and some government officials in the recent past became so hot a topic it partly caused a rift between the Cebu City mayor and police officials.
While killings victimizing the common man and involving only one person do not normally attract attention, that changes when these occur almost daily and are seemingly systematically done, like what happened early on in the government’s war against illegal drugs.
Killings are worrisome occurrences for any peace-loving member of society, more so when they are attention grabbers and therefore invite the question of, “Who’s next?” On this, John Donne’s admonition is relevant again:
“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”