General Admission
Day of ignominy for Mangaldan
By Al S. Mendoza
DRUGS, the prohibited ones, destroy brain cells, leading to an evil mind.
Drug dependents hallucinate, in the process throwing them off-balance most of the time.
They see demons, they play with demons, and they eternally conceive a playground peopled by demons.
They become menace to society.
They steal, they swindle, they harm, they kidnap, and they even kill.
Yes, call the kidnappers of the grandson of Mayor Romero of Mangaldan drug dependents and I might readily agree.
Only men with evil minds can do such heinous crime.
Their mental faculties are blurred, obliterated almost beyond repair.
Every dastardly act they commit – mostly, they are not aware of it.
Drugs make them do it.
No, drugs force them to do it.
At times, they do it for kicks – fueled by devil-designed drugs.
Mostly, they do it for money.
They need money to sustain their drug-dependence.
They will sell their properties for their evil habit.
They will even exchange their souls for a packet, a sachet if you will, of their favorite sniff.
Mangaldan’s contribution to national shame was powered by drugs?
You bet.
And I can’t blame Biking Jess Garcia if he’s still fuming. Suddenly, his beloved town had just had its own share of ignominy.
No person with a sane mind could do such an unconscionable thing: kidnap an 8-year-old boy.
Poverty must have been the reason?
Baloney!
The suspects were not dirt-poor at all. A BI revealed they ate three times a day – and could splurge on beer every single night of the week.
Quick money for the pleasures of the earth?
Only a man with a twisted mind will trade his principles for fleeting joy.
And possibly, that was the case in point, which was, that drugs must have empowered them to hatch a most despicable act against humanity.
Why take on an eight-year-old boy at all?
So fragile, so innocent, so defenseless.
“Unless you are totally cleansed of it (drugs), you will not become normal again,” said Richard Merk, the self-confessed drug addict turned crooner who now owns and operates the thriving Merk’s Place in Greenbelt, Makati. “I had myself locked up for months and months in a rehabilitation center until I was sure I was truly given a clean bill of health.”
He said the clincher was, “when I gave myself to God again, I knew I was A-OK again.”
* * *
BONIFACIO NINO. The passing of Atty. Bonifacio Nino on March 31 marks the end of an era. He wasn’t tall, but he towered in strength of character. A proud son of Bani, Tio Boni settled in Mangatarem after marrying Soledad Estabillo. He ran for mayor in our town; he lost. But in defeat, he gained more friends – and wisdom. Tio Boni was the father of Dan and Amor, my beermates in high school. Goodbye, Tio Boni. Please say hi for me to Pareng Jess.
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