Violence in real life vs. e-games, movie scenes

THE reported deaths within a span of two weeks of two boys reportedly as a result of bullying and mauling by neighborhood playmates and schoolmates is disturbing if not alarming.

If autopsy results prove that fatal blows killed the two boys, then it can only mean that our youths are becoming more violent in their ways of inflicting injuries on others. The troubling fact is that the victims were not even victims of fraternity hazing where neophytes are beaten up serially.

The deaths of the two boys should not be dismissed and treated as if these were another of those homicidal cases because these were not.  The victims were obviously targeted not to die like fraternity hazing victims.  The two were obviously beaten up to a pulp merely out of spite, not to end their lives, not even to maim them.

We can only surmise that the two incidents are the influence of violent scenes in e-games and movies on our young’s impressionable minds, no different from the causes of rise in teenage pregnancies. The many violent scenes in e-games and even in our local teleseryes show characters and actors in fictional scenarios being beaten up viciously only to come out alive in next scenes or in succeeding games. Nobody dies from being beaten up black and blue so it appears in the movies but as our two incidents point out, that is not the case in real life situations.

There can be no laws to ban violent scenes in movies so our society should begin to take the warning that parental advice is required seriously when watching adult movies that feature explicit sex, violence, drugs, immorality and perverted values. The same warning should be made for playing e-games. And just as law enforcers and school authorities hold symposia in schools about teenage pregnancies, these should already include unintended deaths from violence.  

Implement, enforce

SINCE January 1 this year, drugstores are mandated by law to exempt from the 12-percent value added tax (VAT) the sale of medicines for diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol to people aged below 60 years old. (Seniors 60 years and above are already enjoying said discount.) Deputy commissioner Marissa Cabreros of the Bureau of Internal Revenue has called on medicine sellers nationwide to heed the law or face a fine of P1,000, or a jail term of up to six months or both. Latest data showed that those with hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol now include the 30-40 year-old bracket.  The trouble mostly with our laws is their implementation and enforcement.  Those implementing them hardly implement them.  Those tasked to enforce them barely do their job for reasons too obvious to mention here.  Do we wait for President Duterte to crack the whip before we move our butts?

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