WE STILL do not know the real story behind Ashley Abad’s death. Autopsy showed she died of drug overdose on Jan. 20, 2018. The drug of choice? Ecstasy.
Who would have thought that the craze among usually the children of the affluent during parties would end up in the loss of a precious life? I sympathize with the grieving parents whose thirst for justice authorities still have to quench. Who supplied her the drug? And was the taking of the drug voluntary?
All investigations, I say, can never be true to the incident being investigated. There are always nuances that probes cannot uncover. Like, how did she, her boyfriend and their friends interact during the party? Every action, every word could be crucial to what happened. But that scene can no longer be replicated, although a CCTV footage could have helped.
I, too, am a parent and people may say I am overprotective with my boys. Months after the first boy was born, our place in Sambag 2 in Cebu City was hit by a fire. I relocated my family to my wife’s place in Inayawan. Before that, we had bought a property in the suburbs and my main consideration in the purchase was whether the place would provide a secure environment for growing-up boys.
Escaping the drug menace was the prime consideration. Illegal drugs had become a problem in our old place, and there were claims that the fire that hit our place was started by a drug addict. The temptation was far too great, I thought then, for my kids in that kind of surrounding.
When we surveyed the property that we purchased, I remember my childhood days in the old place. The village wasn’t cramped with informal settlers then and there were even spots of green in the place. So like the surrounding in the property that we bought. I thought it was the perfect place for the boys to grow up in.
A couple of weeks ago, the police raided our neighborhood and made some arrests. It turned out that some young boys (yes, some of them were teenagers or in their early 20s) were already peddling illegal drugs. People in our neighborhood were probably happy that the trade in illegal drugs in our place didn’t blossom. The hope is that it was fully nipped in the bud.
My older boy is now in senior high school and I am happy that he is still relatively an innocent teenager, with his classmates and friends having similar mindsets. He is a mere nodding acquaintance to the youth in the neighborhood, which can be both good and bad. My only hope is that he will not end up associating with people that will offer him bad influences.
But then we are in times when even an innocent party could turn out bad for our kids, especially the girls. The Ashley Abad case should thus be an eye-opener for all of us parents. The old place is no longer the same one where we grew up in. Times are changing and we have to adjust to the change in guiding our children.
When our children could die in parties, it is time to raise our vigilance to a higher level.