Election Season = Hunting Season

Q: What do you call 100 armed police men killing 50 unarmed civilians including women and journalists?

A: Maguindanao politics

Ok I’m not being fair. The police were accompanied by an indeterminate number of armed people as well. It could also be that the armed people were accompanied by 100 policemen. Either way it’s atrocious.

The casual observer may find it strange when they read the newspapers. Members of the Magundadatu clan are fingering their political rivals. But up until recently, both clans were allies. The papers report that the government knew the Ampatuan clan kept private armies. Apparently even the Magundadatu kept a private army. One cause being posited was that the Magundadatu brought their private army to a meeting with the other clan. We can assume the Ampatuan didn’t like that gesture.  Despite this the government hasn’t done anything.  It’s not so strange when you find out the Ampatuan are administration allies. Or that even this powerful clan has experienced assassination attempts for about a decade. The situation has its own bizarre logic.

Something ugly and rotten is happening. It’s not just politics as usual. The move is too audacious and arrogant. Even a person greatly favored by the current administration wouldn’t dare do something this brazen.

Or maybe the stinky rot revealed is that certain people do feel untouchable. That they feel they can escape justice because of connections to other influential people. Perhaps the stink is also the decay of civility. That people are so desperate they feel only violence can save them. Perhaps it is the stench of political horse trading. Leave my fiefdom alone and we will deliver votes.

If anything I hope people remember this and learn from it. I pray people remember this. Unfortunately, I doubt people will remember this. The Arroyo administration is not the only one that has its share of brazen characters. Estrada’s administration had it as well. And even certain people escaped justice during the times of Ramos and Cory. If we ever learned our lessons, the evidence is hard to see.