DRUG addiction is not the only danger to your life and your place.
Nowadays, police addicted to the culture of impunity, to the bloodlust of the war on drugs, are also a menace to your peace of mind.
Beware also of Facebook, because they alter your realities. Just ask the Caloocan police, who justified their killing of an innocent boy named Kian delos Santos based on a social media post that he is a drug user.
Screw the Oplan Double Barrel budget, a monthly subscription on social network can help save money in the fight against crime.
Facebook is the new addiction. It alters your realities.
You will believe anything posted there about Digong and his war on drugs, war on the Liberal party is the truth.
Your friends are no longer material. Not the things they say about young innocent kids being killed, or the Lumad kids in danger of losing their jobs, or the people of Marawi losing their homes and their minds with the ongoing bombings and war, or the urban poor occupying long neglected social housing units. No, the truth is not out there, the truth is in the palm of your smartphone and android tab. Read a post, share a post about Digong and his wars and you get a high and feed the lies of fake news and trolls.
Greed is also an addiction. An addiction manifested by members of the Commission on Appointments in Congress recently, who held on to the budget for social welfare and let go of a honest hardworking secretary because she won't share that piece of budget to their pockets.
Greed is also deadly, when owners of Luisita continue to lord over the land and armed men shoot down agrarian reform beneficiaries.
Killing is an addiction. This week, lumad farmer Roger Timboco in Comval who supported the Marbai reclamation of Lapanday was shot dead. Activist doctor Darby Santiago in Manila received a death threat in his phone for speaking up for Judy Taguiwalo. Anti-mining church worker Domingo Edo of the Marbel Diocese Social Action Center and an 18-year-old altar boy were killed. This shows that drug dependents are not the only ones in danger. And when state forces are given blanket authority to kill, and the way they kill without verifying who their targets are, are we as a society made safer?
Power can also be addictive. The more power in your hands the easy it is to push the button, squeeze the trigger, and utter words that make people believe this is the truth.
“We are addicted to our thoughts. We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.” - Santosh Kalwar, Nepalese poet
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