Praying for a blessed bullet
I’m addicted to this trading post website asia.expat. Everyday I check it to see if there’s anything good for sale (second hand books, laptops, computers, gadgets, etc) and I am never disappointed. It’s like window shopping while sitting down.
I get upset whenever I check the category on pets, though. Hong Kong is so small that there’s no room for pets, and many stupid people buy dogs or cats at the petstores at ridiculously high prices and when they (the stupid people) get tired of the pets, they throw them out. Rescue shelters post so many pleas asking subscribers to help and adopt a stray or donate for their food.
The pictures I posted here are some of the puppies in the animal shelters. These ones where found in the Midlevels squashed in boxes and left near the garbage bins. They were rescued, and in the nick of time, too. It’s very hot and humid here these days, and the puppies could’ve suffocated inside the boxes.
———————————-
My mom and I talked last night, and the topic of conversation was two things: that National Book Store is going to open a branch in Kowloon sometime soon; and Palparan’s spreading influence.
She was the one who brought up both issues.
About the first, I said that if NB sells a wider range of books and at a lower prices compared to Dymocks and Page One, it will have a fighting chance. As for me, though, I buy my books second-hand so I’m not reall excited. In the meantime, when we got to the second topic, I asked her to pray very hard that the NPA get Palparan — a bullet straight to the head.
"I can’t do that, anak!", she exclaimed. She sounded so horrified. "We can’t pray for someone to die!"
"Okay mom. So please tell me who’s going to stop Palparan from his campaign against human rights advocates and progressives? The police? The military?"
She couldn’t answer. Through the last five years I’ve made sure that my mom — and when he was still alive, my dad — know all about the monster who is Jovito Palparan. She knows that horrors that Palparan has wrought through the years, the blood-soaked trail he has left all over Mindoro, the Visayas and now Central Luzon. When Palparan was awarded a Silver Star a few months ago, she called up just to express her outrage.
So now I asked her to appeal to her God and ask Him to aid the NPA in ridding the Philippines of Palparan.
"Well, mom — who’s going to get Palparan? Who’s going to stop him? Arroyo’s only too happy to have that monster roaming the regions butchering activists and civilians. She even gave him a medal for it, remember?"
My mom, understandably, was stumped. Then, after a few seconds, strict Roman Catholic, St. Teresa’s alumni and mass-once-a-day person, my mom says ‘Sana nga galingan ng NPA..," and her voice trailed off.
"Mom, please pray for a blessed bullet to hit its mark faithfully and fatally."
My mother just sighed.
Arroyo and her various monster-henchmen know that by launching this all-out war, they are distracting the mass movement from its immediate goal to have her ousted from power. Human rights organizations and people’s groups are being made to count bodies of killed members and civilizians. Instead of being able to focus on the immediate political campaign to remove GMA from power, people’s groups are sidetracked.
It’s very deliberate on the Arroyo government’s part. It isn’t really as if there’s any chance that the AFP can defeat the NPA that the government has launched its all-out war; it did so because the real targets are civilians and legal political activists and human rights activists, all of whom are part of legal mass movement working for Arroyo’s ouster through legal means.
The all-out war against the NPA never ceased anyway. It’s been on for years.
————–
UP Students Abducted in Central Luzon (from Arkibong Bayan reports)
Two students from the University of the Philippines (UP) - Diliman and a peasant organizer were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan las Monday.
Ms. Karen Empeño, a BA Sociology student of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy and a member of the League of Filipino Students-UP Diliman, Ms. Sherlyn Cadapan, an award-winning triathlete from the College of Human Kinetics (CHK) and a former representative to the University Student Council of UP Diliman, together with Mr. Manuel Merino, were abducted by suspected military men at around 2 a.m, July 26.
The UP community holds protest actions today, demanding the release of the three.
A fact sheet prepared by a human rights group in Central Luzon, tells how the three were abducted. The report says a 14 year old witnessed the abduction by hooded men who identified themselves as "vigilantes," forcibly entering the house where the three were staying.
TIPO NG PAGLABAG: Pagdukot, Pambubugbog, Pananakot
MGA BIKTIMA
1. Manuel Merino
2. Shierlyn Capalan
3. Karen Impeno
PETSA AT ORAS NG PANGYAYARI: Hunyo 26, 2006 alas 2:00 ng umaga
LUGAR NG PANGYAYARI: Purok 6, Brgy. San Miguel, Hagonoy, Bulakan
MGA PINAGHIHINALAANG MAY KAGAGAWAN: Mga 15-kataong nakasibilyan, mga naka-bonnet ng itim at nagpakilalang mga vigilante group daw sila.
BUOD NG PANGYAYARI:
Noong Hunyo 26, 2006, Lunes, alas 2:00 ng umaga ay sapilitang pumasok ang anim na mga di kilalang kalalakihang sibilyan armado ng mahahabang baril sa bahay ni Ginoong William Halili Ramos.
Anim na sibilyang naka-bonnet ng itim armado ng mahahabang baril ang kumatok sa kanilang bahay. Nag-alalang buksan ng huli ang pinto, sumilip muna siya sa bintana kasama ng kaniyang anak na si Wilfredo Ramos 14 na taong gulang. Nang di agad niya nabuksan ang pinto ay sumigaw ang isa na "bumaba ang lahat ng mga tao sa loob ng bahay kapag hindi ninyo binuksan bibilangan ko kayo!" Dito na napilitang buksan ni Ginoong Ramos ang pinto.
Pagkabukas ng pinto, agad siyang hinablot ng isang malaking lalaki, ibinalya pahiga sa semento piniringan at inilabas ng bahay kasama ang anak na si Wilfredo. Si Manuel Merino na noo’y nasa itaas ng bahay ay bumaba kaya nang makita siya ng mga armadong kalalakihan ay agad siyang binayo sa tiyan gamit ang mahabang baril kung saan ang puluhan ng baril ang pinambayo. Pagkabagsak sa semento ay itinali siya, inilabas sa bahay at isinakay sa pampasaherong dyip na nakahimpil sa humigit kumulang 100 meter mula sa bahay nila Ginoong Ramos.
Ang batang si Wilfredo na noo’y nasa labas din ng bahay ay nakitang bitbit na din ng armadong kalalakihan sina Karen at Sherlyn. Ang dalawa ay kinuha sa bahay ng kanyang tiyahin, isang bahay ang pagitan mula sa kanilang bahay. Duon natulog ang mga nabanggit. Hinubaran si Karen ng pang-itaas na damit at ginamit na pampering sa kanya. Isinakay sila sa nabanggit ding sasakyan. Bumaybay ang sasakyan direksiyon patungo sa Iba, Hagonoy.
Note: Hunyo 26, 2006, alas 11:00 ng tanghali, naglunsad ng FFM (fact-finding mission) Dineny sa Iba HQ at Hangga
