salvaging

“Mapatay ta ka karon.” These words, I heard, coming from my less than 10-year old nephew in Davao more than a decade ago had made me chill. The child of an OFW uttering such words was so casual that not one among my family reacted to his tantrums that made him utter such an “expression.”

The words reverberated these days when the Commission in Human Rights recently did their work in Davao City known as the killing fields of the popular Davao Death Squad.

More than 800 unexplained killings were tallied by non-government organization so far.

In one of my annual vacations, there was a time that three killings occurred in one night just few kilometers from where I was sleeping.

Another killing occurred in front of one of my sexmates one new-year celebration. When my pal narrated few hours later how the killing spared him, I could not blame him how he feared eating dinuguan these days because of the splattered blood in the dining table as scene of the crime.

“Merese.”

I could not forget the single-word reaction of my brother upon knowing that the victim was a small-time weed peddler.

Culled human lives are regularly done in my city in the last 10 years and the counting of the victims is continuing.

I remembered that one day before I left for Riyadh, I told one of my brothers to look into what I heard thay my old and forgetful mother was duped again by one old tricycle driver with more than 10,000 pesos loan. She never got paid.

Few weeks after I returned to the Saudi capital, my best friend texted me saying that the old man was killed by the dreaded Davao Death Squad. The txt emphasized how my mother cried because she no longer could collect the utang that old man acquired from my mother.

Last year, I saw another brother talking to a believed to be former DDS member raising another case of wrong-doing. Apparently, a case was lodged again. I never heard about it but I will not be surprised if the culprit is no longer breathing these days.

Petty criminals are killed in Davao City.

I wonder if those who owed me money should be exposed in my city. A careless whisper could take a breath away. Patay na sab?

I respect the right to life. I am not in favor of death penalty. The rule of law must be enforced in seeking justice. But when the law is bent to favor the rich and those in power, I have second thoughts of their right to life. Anyway, there is the right to revolt against oppressors.

With the recent torture, rape and killing of a 20-year old teacher, what is really happening in Davao City? Ain't this revolting?