Sleeping and Laughing with the enemy

There's not enough to be said on the inhuman carnage in Maguindanao! The barbarous act defies even crude civilized conventions. Even the wild, Wild West offers dignity in battle. The countdown before pulling and triggering a gun in a duel is enough evidence. The public's outrage generated enormous information, whether legitimate or not, on its consequences, causes and travesties over popular and social media. But let’s look at the often overlooked but very telling details of an impending whitewash. One is the meeting between a government emissary and the Ampatuans to get their cooperation a day after the massacre. Geez, talking of coddling the enemy. In police parlance, a suspect that has been accused of a crime within 24 hours is still considered in the bounds of a 'hot pursuit,' meaning he can be arrested even without a warrant. But the government even has the gall to give them the benefit of the doubt and begged for their cooperation even with all the concrete evidences coming out. What bothers me most are the photos of the meeting showing the emissary, an unheralded Jesus Dureza, seemingly smiling and having fun in the company of the Ampatuans, Senior, Junior and Zaldy at the latter's mansion at that (See photo at left courtesy of ABS-CBN News.com). (See related story on GMA News TV: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/178135/dureza-gets-scolding-from-wife-over-photos-with-ampatuans). 

I think this is the most telling evidence to cover-up if not minimize the impact of the crimes’ consequences to the Ampatuans.

Another would be Dureza's story on the ground fire the chopper, where he and Ampatuan Jr. rode on, received during their flight to General Santos City to turn over the latter to the equally unremarkable DOJ Secretary Agnes Devanadera. What made the story outrageous and suspicious was his extra effort to pick up a bullet shell and showing it to media as proof of the assault which they found absolutely idiotic. Imagine a bullet shell instead of the projectile hitting the chopper? What seems to be Dureza's strategy to generate empathy for Ampatuan Jr. backfired on him tenfold. The outrageous story quickly spread like wildfire in social media circles. 

Correlate these observations with other popular circumstances such as the suspect without a handcuff, the sugarcoated and carefully planned statements from public officials, the general sentiments of a whitewash, the authorities continued shunning of the other principal suspects and you’ll have a grand scale, orchestrated coverup in the offing. The greatest tragedy of this is not so much on the carnage itself but why it had to happen in the first place and why do the devils still freely roam the earth when they should be burning in hell where they rightfully belong. In all of these, I wish we would realize how far we’ve gone back to the dark ages if not to the dinosaur epoch.

And I also hope the alleged tape used to record the atrocious acts divulges itself a little later with the 20 or so eyewitnesses to give time for the public outcry to percolate into a boiling rampage. In this scenario, the mob might just take justice into their own hands and mutilate the barbarians and the co-conspirators, much as what they’ve done to the hapless and innocent victims.