WHAT do the violent deaths of a two-year-old girl from Minglanilla, a young lawyer from Mandaue, and a university coed from Lapu-Lapu City remind us?
That no one is safe anymore, wherever the place, whatever the time.
Lawyer Amelie Ocañada-Alegre was headed home, probably looking forward to a restful evening. But criminals declared no one should feel safe even with others around. They pumped bullets into her face and other parts of the body.
Ritsanlyn Donaire was left at home with stepfather Nicodemo Deloy, a construction worker. He commanded her to sleep, but the little girl was sick and restless.
Annoyed, he reportedly punched the two-year-old and hit her head on the wall, driving sleep only farther away.
Coed Karen Kaye Montebon felt safe in her house. But the criminals declared no family home was private or sacred. So, at the very young age of 17, Karen Kaye breathed her last.
Ritsanlyn’s stepfather reportedly said he was remorseful, but no tear was shed. Better that than crocodile tears.
Neighbors said he and the toddler’s mother used illegal drugs. Also, that prior to Ritsanlyn’s mauling, Deloy was irritable and worried about the late arrival of his wife.
As if any explanation is ever enough to justify cruelty to a child.
Having a six-year-old grandson who is my constant source of joy, I share the mother’s feeling of irreparable loss. But that does not stop me from asking why she continued to expose her child to danger at the hands of her live-in partner.
Neighbors were quick to share that they had known past instances of abuse on the little girl. What happened to a mother’s ferocious instinct to protect her child?
Amelie’s and Karen’s perpetrators are still at large. To date, the motives for their killings are still big unknowns. And the hands that snuffed their lives cannot even be called suspects, just “persons of interest.”
Very visible on the freedom wall set up for Karen were writings of “Kill all the criminals!,” “Nigara na ang mga criminal!,” “We need you, Duterte!” and “Yes to death penalty! Yes to death penalty!”
All with exclamation points, shouting out feelings of anger, pain, helplessness, frustration, hopelessness, desperation, depression.
I see where they’re coming from. Would that the victims were still in hospitals, being cared for and nurtured to recovery! Even if connected to tubes, far from flat-lining, doctors and nurses consulting each other...these could give us hope.
I can see the fascination with (Rodrigo) Duterte and with the death penalty. Abolished in 1987, reintroduced in 1993, and abolished again in 2006. How about resurrecting it once again?
A knee-jerk reaction, really. Even in the U.S., having the death penalty did not make much difference. Its 31 states without death penalty consistently showed lower murder rates, than the 19 states with death penalty.
In rejecting calls for reviving the death penalty, anti-apartheid revolutionary and South African president Nelson Mandela puts it succinctly, “That type of vengeance does not help us, to kill people merely because they have killed others."
So instead, can our law enforcers, investigators and crime fighters go faster and smarter, please?
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)