DECANTATIONS

I haven't been sleeping well since that night I saw a body lying dead, a meter beyond the gates of our house. From what I could gather the young man, in his twenties, was one of the latest victim of the vigilante assassinations here in Cebu City. He was victim number 122. His name, according to the news, was Romeo Rico.

I wasn't home when the incident happened. My sister and the servants heard successive gunshots at around 7 pm, 29 March 2006, but they were too terrified to go out of the house to investigate. It was only later that they heard a man shout that there was a dead man outside and people came rushing out of their houses to investigate, that my household came out to find out what happened.

WHen I was informed that someone had died right outside our house, I together with my brother and cousin immediately rushed home. There were so many people outside our house that night. Police men, neighbors, the media. The scene was like one of those crime/murder investigations we often see in t.v. But the reality of it was too real, it became surreal. My cousin went in for a closer look to find out if it was anybody we knew. Would it be disrespectful to the dead if I were to say we were happy it wasn't anybody we knew?

I went into the house and up to our terrace to get a better view of the crime scene. From up there I could clearly see a body sprawled under the glaring amber light of the lamp post. Thankfully, my mom's own plants occluded the view of the corpse's face and upper torso. But what little I saw was shocking enough it has etched itself into my memory: A man wearing slippers and maong shorts, lying in a pool of his own blood, right outside our home

Everything seemed unreal. From above, I observed the crowd increasing in number as news of the dead body spread. I observed as the media took pictures and interviewed the people around the scene. I observed as the SOCO conducted their investigation, and collected evidence from my unoccluded and elevated vantage point. I observed them finally cover the body with a white sheet then wheel the corpse away into the waiting ambulance.

They didn't clean up the crime scene though. Come daybreak, blood, brain matter and bits of flesh were still lying there and began to smell badly as decomposition set in. My cousins got a sackful of charcoal to burn away all the traces of his bloody remains. Then since no one seemed wont to do so, we lit a candle for him to mark his passing. Memories of that night continue to burn though.

I'm a lawyer. I'm supposed to defend the helpless, protect the innocent, promote justice, uphold the law. But all my legal knowledge amounts to nothing in the face of what happened. There are no clear leads to point out to the killers. Our neighbor who saw the incident didn't get a good look at the perpetrators. The moment he saw guns, he ran for his dear life. The news tagged Rico as victim number 122 of the vigilante executions. In all probability, his death will go the way of the rest of the still unsolved 121 vigilante executions.

All of us keep whispering about the injustice of the vigilante executions, but no one is doing anything. We mutter in hushed tones about the special police task force that has allegedly been handpicked by our own City Mayor to deal with and clean up the undersirable criminal elements in our society. But we Cebuanos are too afraid, too cowed by those in power to do anything about it. There are even those who say that these vigilante executions is a good thing since it will "clean up" our city.

I haven't slept well since the night it happened. What disturbs my unconscious? Fear? my conscience? the inability to take in the stark ugliness of reality?

I have trouble accepting it. I know it happened, but I just cannot accept it. God, what have we done? What are we doing with out lives? God, are we little more than animals? Will killing people really solve the sickness of our society? 122 dead. How many more have to die before we, the people take action. Before we say ENOUGH! PUT A STOP TO THIS FOR GOD'S SAKE! STOP!!!

The guy who died had a family, a mother. She not only has to contend with the fact of her son's death, but also with the fact that he was killed deliberately, defenselessly, then abandoned like so much refuse. Whether or not he was a criminal is not an excuse for killing him defenselessly. We have laws, we have a justice system for that. Is our justice system so inept, so corrupt, so violent that our police force are taking the law into their own hands and have proclaimed themselves sole judge, prosecution and executioner? Wherein lies the difference now between the criminals and the police force when both of them are guilty of violating the law? By allowing these vigilante slayings to go on, its as if those of us who do nothing have pulled the triggers ourselves.

We are equally guilty, all of us. We deserve the world we live in. Is this the legacy we will leave to our children? A legacy of violence, of ugliness, where justice is but a noun, and a human life has no value at all