Collateral damage

THE impact of the intensified police operations against illegal drugs has began to take its toll on many Muslim families that have since migrated to Pangasinan, beginning in the mid-1980s, particularly in the cities of Urdaneta and Dagupan.
Many of these families, mostly residents of communities that have been target of intensified police operations because of the notoriety that the villages earned being the sources of illegal drugs, have started to leave their residences, ostensibly to return to Mindanao.
It is not likely that the local government units are behind the sudden exodus, as some quarters are wont to report it with political malice. The urgency to depart is understandable because no person wants to be caught in the middle of deadly crossfires between police and criminal elements.
Mercifully, the local governments of the two cities have been magnanimous, extending help where they could to the families, as it should be for they have been part of the progress in the communities. Without a doubt, they are part of the collateral damage of the war on drugs.

Desecrating, defaming

IF plans do not miscarry as per the sickening edict by President Duterte, Marcos’s frozen body since 1989 will be buried next month at the Libingan, desecrating not only a hallowed ground but also defaming a long-wounded nation all over again.
By its very name, the Libingan ng Mga Bayani (The Cemetery For Heroes) is, in essence, reserved only for heroes. Ferdinand Marcos, like virtually all dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam, Idi Amin and Khaddafi, is not a hero. Worse, Marcos was also exposed as a fake hero for his shameless act of brandishing a virtual cache of fake war medals unearthed no less by top American military officers.
As a dictator during his dreaded Martial Law regime from 1972 to 1986, Marcos caused the death of more than 3,000 Filipinos, tortured almost 10,000 political prisoners and practically ordered forced disappearances on nearly 8,000 pro-democracy forces opposed to his oppressive one-man rule. This is not to say that while he was in power, he was found looting some P10 billion from the nation’s coffers.
And from the looks of it, the dictator’s widow, Imelda, and children Imee, Bongbong and Irene will only be too happy again to savor the taste of evil that they had been so filthily familiar with for a long, long time. The gall.

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