I know I may be the last person to write about what's happening around for the past days. Still, the thoughts count. For many, the world doesn't seem to be a better place when they cannot open their facebook accounts. Unfortunately, there are issues and concerns that are far more than that. There is crisis in Syria and here at home we have insurgencies in Zamboanga. A promising advertising manager was found dead in Silang Cavite and we are seeking justice for her. Justin Bieber's naked photos leaked in the internet and Miley Cyrus can be stopped from twirking. Seems like everything has gone wrong.
World governments are too busy quelling the military issues that will threaten national and international security but cases of poverty and crime doubled in number for the past week going unnoticed because of these big headlines.
There was a time when hopes are high with the Arab region. 2011 served as a year of liberation and new dawn for Arab governments who for the longest time were slaves of tyrannical governments. The youth, assisted by the social media, turned their nations 270 degrees by giving birth to a new rule. It was thought to be a rule by the people. Now it all looks like shattered dreams of mobocracy.
There was a time when we were so hopeful about Mindanao that we thought end is near for rebels to stop pestering the government. Just last year, the Bangsamoro group and the peace panel team of Malacanang signed a new memorandum of agreement before the Prime Minister of Malaysia for the formation of a new region which will soon be a sub-state. Now MNLF group shows their exceptance of the treaty by firing. The violence is contained in three brangays of Zamboanga. Still, the Department of Social Welfare and Development declared this phenomenon as a humanitarian crisis.
Several political analysts are saying that this happened only to cover up the heat of Janet Lim Napoles issue because the pork barrel saga includes names of senators whose political career may be damaged by the controversy. So before the rope crashed behind the walls, they are cooling it off with a more palpable sensation. What could be worse than political issues but a military one. Something which concerns humanity's safety.
The Vatican called for a one day of prayer for Syria. Amidst the threat of bio-mass distruction, fear of loosing people's lives in a highly diplomatic age is something that horrifies our future. The same thing is true with what is happening with Zamboanga as the Archdiocese of Manila begged the entire Filipino nation to pray for the release of the hostages and cease the battles between the rebel force and the military.
I am consoled by the fact that no one seem to associate this violence to religion. People have learned to respect Islam through the bloody experience of the past. No one seem to discriminate religion of any kind which should be the case indeed. Syrian crisis of today has nothing to do with the Muslims. It is a battle of political ambitions and never of religion. The same is true with Mindanao. MNLF is not fighting for Muslims. They are simply fighting for their ideology. The fact is, Muslim people in Mindanao are calling for the end of this morass.
Perhaps no other news about violence can top this segment than what happened about Kae Davantes, the young account manager of MRM digital group of McCann Phil. who was found dead one morning in Silang Cavite. While reading Kara Ortiga's column I learned that
"She was 25. She worked as a senior accounts manager for the digital group MRM under McCann Philippines. I used to work as an accounts manager for more than a year in an advertising agency, but I continue to surround myself with friends who still do, and the lifestyle paints a picture that is niche, specific and familiar. I do not know Kae, but I find it easy for me to slip into her everyday shoes.
"Her last Friday night, as time-lined through the details obtained by police investigators, would actually look exactly like mine. Hers would begin with a late clock-out from the office at 9:36 p.m. I would leave mine at around 7 p.m. Kae would proceed to enjoy Friday’s hot nightlife in the city, probably enjoying a few rounds of drinks with officemates, a weekly cap-off that is normal behavior in the advertising industry. I waited that same Friday night for my friends (girls still working in advertising as account managers) to finish their work, so we could catch up. Her Friday nights, I would imagine, included shared sentiments about agency life: frustrations about clients, rants about workload, lots of witty inside jokes. Her officemates said that Kae spent a night with them in a bar at the Fort Strip. I met up with my friends at a small restobar in a side street in Makati, one of our favorite after-work places.
"At around 1 a.m., three of her friends reportedly escorted Kae to her car in the Fort parking lot. She would drive off in her metallic beige Toyota Altis at exactly 1:06 a.m., according to police. I would leave with my friends from the restobar at around 2 a.m. We would first see my friend off to her condo unit across the street, and then separate to our respective cars parked somewhere at a view’s distance. The last Kae’s family would hear from her that night would be via text message that she was on her way to their home in Las Piñas. Meanwhile, mine didn’t even hear from me. I received a text message from my father asking me to come home that night, but I didn’t reply. Ninety-eight percent of my father’s texts to me ask, “Where are you? What time are you coming home?” I only reply to him about 50 percent of the time. The rest of the time, he would go to bed without hearing from stubborn old me. But he should find me safely in my bed the following morning, as he would that Saturday, the morning after.
"But that Saturday morning, Kae’s parents would not find her in bed. She would not come home that night, and her family would frantically be filing a report at 10 a.m. on Saturday, looking for signs of her from the Bonifacio Global City Police Community Precinct.
"Instead, her body would be found somewhere else, under a bridge by the riverside in Silang, Cavite; her mouth gagged with a “branded” handkerchief that didn’t belong to her, her hands tied using a car seatbelt. Police believe she was strangled with an electric wire, and stabbed with a six-inch kitchen knife, which lay beside her body. Autopsy results show no signs of sexual assault, and her clothes are reported to have been intact. Her possessions were nowhere in sight."
Violence, a deviance in culture which we all assume to be our safety's enemy. We are moving into a more violence friendly environment. A generation of new violent values. How our value system has gone wrong in the last two decades is evident in what Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus want to do and portray. But how about justice and peace? We are seeking peace in Syria and Zamboanga. We are seeking Justice for Kae Davantes and justice for what Janet Lim Napoles did with our taxes. It may not be so obvious that some of those who sympathizes with Kae Davantes would want her fate be transferred to Jeanne Napoles, the daughter of the Scam Queen.
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